The size of wild Kloosterman sums in number fields and function fields (Q6183788)

Let \(R\) be a discrete valuation ring of prime residue characteristic \(p\), \(\pi\) a uniformizer, \(n\) and \(k\) positive integers, and \(\psi\) a nondegenerate character \(R/\pi^nR \to \mathbb C^\times\). Fix \(k\geq 1\) and define the Kloosterman sum \[ \mathrm{Kl}_k(x)=\sum_{\substack{ x_1,\dots,x_k \in R/\pi^nR \\ \prod_{i=1}^k x_i =x }} \psi \Bigl( \sum_{i=1}^k x_i\Bigr). \] In this paper, the author obtains lower and upper bound for \(\mathrm{Kl}_k(x)\) for the case where \(n>1\). To write the main results, let \(v\) be the \(p\)-adic valuation of \(k\). In mixed characteristic, let \(e\) be the \(\pi\)-adic valuation of \(p\), and \[ w =\#\{ j \mid 0\leq j \leq v-1, p^j(p-1) \mid e, e (v-j + (p^j+1)/ (p^{j+1}-p^j)) \leq n-1\}. \] In equal characteristic, let \(w=0\). Also, let \(k^*= \gcd(k , |R/\pi|-1) p^w\), and always take \(0\in\mathbb{N}\). Define \(c\) and \(\tilde{c}\) by \[ c= \min \{ s \in \mathbb N \mid \pi^{ (p^r+ 1) s } p ^{ v-r} \equiv 0 \bmod \pi^{n} \textrm{ for all } r \in \mathbb N, r\leq v \}, \] and \[ \tilde{c} = \min \{ s \in \mathbb N \mid \pi^{ (p^r+ 1) s } p ^{ v-r} \equiv 0 \bmod \pi^{n-1} \textrm{ for all } r \in \mathbb N, r\leq v \}. \] With the above setting, the author proves that if \(n\geq 2\), \[ |\mathrm{Kl}_k(x)| \leq k^* |R/\pi|^{k n/2 - c/2 - \tilde{c} /2 }, \] and there exists \(x \in R/\pi^n\) such that \[ |\mathrm{Kl}_k(x)| \geq |R/\pi|^{k n/2 - c/2 - \tilde{c}/2 }. \] Meanwhile, to prove the lower bound he shows that for \(n\geq 2\) one has \(\mathrm{Kl}_k(x) =0\) for all but at most \(|R/\pi|^{ c + \tilde{c}-1 } (|R/\pi|-1)\) values of \(x\). In the last section the author provides two function field applications to his results, the first one is an application to short interval sums of divisor-like functions, the second one is application to moments of Dirichlet \(L\)-functions, showing that certain short interval sums and certain moments of Dirichlet \(L\)-functions do not, as one might hope, admit square-root cancellation.