On the fourth power mean of the character sums over short intervals (Q856831)

Let \(q \geq 5\) be an odd integer. The authors obtain an asymptotic formula for the mean value \(\sum^{**} | \sum_{1\leq a < q/8} \chi(a)| ^4\), where \(\sum^{**}\) denotes the summation over all primitive Dirichlet characters \(\chi\) modulo \(q\) with the property that \(\chi(-1)=-1\). The formula consists of four main terms, each of the shape \(q^2J(q)C_i(q)\), where \(J(q)\) is the number of primitive characters modulo \(q\) and where each \(C_i(q)\) is given in terms of certain finite or infinite products over primes dividing or not dividing \(q\). The error term in the formula is \(O(q^{2+\varepsilon})\). The proof involves expressing the inner character sum in terms of various \(L\)-functions and then obtaining asymptotic formulas for \(\sum^{**} | L(1,\bar{\chi}\chi_8)| ^4\) and for 14 different mixed mean values of a shape similar to \(\sum^{**} \chi(2^m)L^2(1,\bar{\chi}) L(1,\chi) L(1,\chi \chi_8)\), where \(\chi_8\) denotes the primitive character modulo 8.