Character sums over elements of extensions of finite fields with restricted coordinates (Q6185647)

For a basis \(\{v_1, v_2, \ldots, v_r\}\) of \(\mathbb{F}_{q^r}\) over \(\mathbb{F}_q\) and \(\mathcal{A} \subseteq \mathbb{F}_q\), consider the set \(S_r(\mathcal{A}) := \{a_1v_1+a_2v_2+ \cdots +a_rv_r : a_1, a_2, \ldots, a_r \in \mathbb{F}_q\}\), i.e., that is the set of \(u \in \mathbb{F}_{q^r}\) whose coordinates are restricted to the set \(\mathcal{A}\). In particular, one of the natural examples is the case of \( q = 3\) and \(\mathcal{A} = \{0, 2\}\) which leads to a Cantor-like set \(S_r(\mathcal{A}) \subseteq \mathbb{F}_{q^r}\). In this article, the authors estimate the mixed character sums \[ S_r(\mathcal{A}; \chi, \psi; f_1, f_2) = \underset{\omega \in S_r(\mathcal{A})}{\sum}\chi(f_1(\omega))\psi(f_2(\omega)) \] with rational functions \(f_1(x), f_2(x) \in \mathbb{F}_{q^r}(x) \), of degrees \(d_1\) and \(d_2\), respectively and \(\chi\) and \(\psi\) are fixed multiplicative and additive characters of \(\mathbb{F}_{q^r}\), respectively (with the natural conventions that the poles of \(f_1(x)\) and \(f_2(x)\) are excluded from summation). In particular, they obtain a nontrivial estimate for such a sum over a finite field analogue of the Cantor set.