Burgess bounds for short character sums evaluated at forms

We establish a Burgess bound for short multiplicative character sums in arbitrary dimensions, in which the character is evaluated at a homogeneous form that belongs to a very general class of “admissible” forms. This n-dimensional Burgess bound is nontrivial for sums over boxes of sidelength at least qβ, with β > 1/2 − 1/(2(n + 1)). This is the first Burgess bound that applies in all dimensions to generic forms of arbitrary degree. Our approach capitalizes on a recent stratification result for complete multiplicative character sums evaluated at rational functions, due to the second author.

Duke Scholars

Author Lillian Beatrix Pierce Mathematics