Improvements of the Weil bound for Artin-Schreier curves (Q641843)

Let \(k={\mathbb{F}}_q\) be a finite field of characteristic \(p>2\) with \(q\) elements. Let \(f(x)\in k[x]\) be a polynomial of degree \(d>1\). Assume that \(p\) does not divide \(d\). Let \(C_f\) be the affine Artin-Schreier curve over \(k\) defined by \(y^q-y=f(x)\). \(C_f\) has genus \(g=(q-1)(d-1)/2\). Let \(r\) be a positive integer and let \(N_r(f)\) denote the number of \({\mathbb{F}}_{q^r}\)-rational points on \(C_f\). The Weil bound for \(N_r(f)\) is given by \[ |N_r(f)-q^r|\leq (d-1)(q-1)q^{r/2}. \] The paper under review improves the Weil bound significantly when \(q\) is large compared to \(d\). The typical result is formulated in the following theorem. Theorem: Let \(r\geq 1\) and \(p>2\). If the derivative \(f^{\prime}\) is square-free and either \(r\) is odd or the hypersurface \(f(x_1)+\cdots+f(x_r)=0\) in \({\mathbb{A}}_k^r\) is non-singular, then \[ |N_r(f)-q^r|\leq C_{d,r}q^{(r+1)/2}, \] where \(C_{d,r}\) is the constant which is independent of \(q\) and is a polynomial in \(d\) with degree \(r\). Essentially, this result removes an extra \(\sqrt{q}\) from the Weil bound. For instance, for \(r=2\), the bound takes the form \(|N_2(f)-q^2|\leq (d-1)^2q^{3/2}\), which is smaller than the Weil bound \((d-1)(q-1)q\). The proof consists in translating \(N_r(f)\) to moment exponential sums and then calculate the moment \(L\)-function as explicitly as possible, using Katz's work on \(\ell\)-adic cohomology monodromy calculations. Generalizations to Artin-Schreier hypersurfaces are also discussed.