On incomplete Gaussian sums (Q902050)

Let \(x\) be a real number such that \(0 <x< 1\), and let \(N\geq 1\) be an integer. The author defines the following Gaussian sums \[ S_2(x;N)=\mathop{{\sum}'}_{\nu=0}^{N}e^{\pi ix(\nu-0.5)^2},\quad S_3(x;N)=\mathop{{\sum}'}_{\nu=0}^{N}e^{\pi ix\nu^2},\quad S_4(x;N)=\mathop{{\sum}'}_{\nu=0}^{N}(-1)^{\nu}e^{\pi ix\nu^2}, \] where the prime means that the first and last terms of the sums are halved. It is known that in the case of rational \(x = a/q\), \((a, q)=1\), and integer \(N \leq q\), \[ S_j\left(\frac{a}{ q},N\right)=O(\sqrt{q})\qquad (j=2,3,4), \] but in some cases this estimate is needed with an explicit constant. Theorem. Let \(q\), \(a\), and \(N\) be integers such that \(1 \leq a, N \leq q\) and \((a, q)=1\). Then the Gaussian sums \(S_j (a/q; N)\), \(j = 2, 3, 4\), satisfy the estimates \[ \left|S_j\left(\frac{a}{ q},N\right)\right|\leq 3.5254\sqrt{q}. \] Corollary. Let \(q\), \(a\), and \(N\) be integers such that \(1 \leq a, N \leq q\) and \((a, q)=1\). Then \[ \left|\sum_{\nu=1}^{N}e^{2\pi ia\nu^2/q}\right|\leq < 3.9071\sqrt{q}. \] The proof refines earlier works of \textit{G. H. Hardy} and \textit{J. E. Littlewood} [Acta Math. 37, 155--191, 193--239 (1914; JFM 45.0305.03)], \textit{J. G. van der Corput} [Math. Ann. 87, 39--65 (1922; JFM 48.0181.01)], \textit{I. M. Vinogradov} [Charĭkov, Comm. Soc. Math. (2) 16, 10--38 (1918; JFM 48.1352.03)], etc.