Kloosterman sum

In mathematics, a Kloosterman sum is a particular kind of exponential sum. Let "a", "b", "m" be natural numbers. Then

:$K(a,b;m)=sum\_\{0leq\; xleq\; m-1,\; gcd(x,m)=1\; \}\; e^\{2pi\; i\; (ax+bx^*)/m\},$

Here "x*" is the inverse of "x" "modulo" "m". They are named for the Dutch mathematician Hendrik Kloosterman, who introduced them in 1926 [Kloosterman, H. D. "On the representation of numbers in the form "ax"² + "by"² + "cz"² + "dt"², Acta Mathematica 49 (1926), pp. 407-464] when he adapted the Hardy-Littlewood circle method to tackle a problem involving positive definite diagonal quadratic forms in four as opposed to five or more variables, which he had dealt with in his dissertation in 1924 [Kloosterman, H. D. "Over het splitsen van geheele positieve getallen in een some van kwadraten", Thesis (1924) Universiteit Leiden] .

Context

The Kloosterman sums are a finite ring analogue of Bessel functions. They occur (for example) in the Fourier expansion of modular forms.

There are applications to mean values involving the Riemann zeta function, primes in short intervals, primes in arithmetic progressions, the spectral theory of automorphic functions and related topics.

Properties of the Kloosterman sums

*The Kloosterman sum "K"("a","b"; "m") depends only on the residue class of "a","b" modulo "m". Furthermore "K"("a","b";"m")="K"("b","a","m") and "K"("ac","b";"m")="K"("a","bc","m") if gcd("c","m")=1. The value of $K(a,b;m)$ is always an algebraic real number. In fact "K"("a","b"; "m") is an element of the subfield $Ksubset\; mathbb\{R\}$ which is the compositum of the fields $mathbb\{Q\}(zeta\_\{p^alpha\}+zeta\_\{p^alpha\}^\{-1\})$ for all odd primes "p" with $p^alpha\; ||\; m$ and $mathbb\{Q\}(zeta\_\{2^\{alpha-1\; +\; zeta\_\{2^\{alpha-1^\{-1\})$ for $2^alpha\; ||\; m$ with $alpha\; >\; 3$.

*Let $m\; =\; m\_1\; m\_2$ with coprime $m\_1,\; m\_2$. Choose $n\_1,\; n\_2$ with $n\_1\; m\_1\; equiv\; 1\; ext\{mod\}\; m\_2$ and $n\_2\; m\_2\; equiv\; 1\; ext\{mod\}\; m\_1$. Then $K(a,b;m)\; =\; K(n\_2\; a,\; n\_2\; b,\; m\_1)\; K(n\_1\; a,\; n\_1\; b;\; m\_2)$. This reduces the evaluation of Kloosterman sums to the case where $m\; =\; p^k$ for a prime number "p" and an integer $kgeq\; 1$.

*We have the Selberg identity

: $K(a,b;m)\; =\; sum\_\{d|gcd(a,b,m)\}\; dcdot\; Kleft(frac\{ab\}\{d^2\},1,frac\{m\}\{d\}\; ight).$

This identity was first stated by Atle Selberg and first proved by Kuznetsov by using the spectral theory of modular forms. Nowadays elementary proofs of this identity are known [ Matthes, R. "An elementary proof of a formula of Kuznecov for Kloosterman sums", Resultate Math. 18(1-2), Pages: 120-124, (1990). ] .

*Let "m"="p" with "p" be an odd prime. Then no simple formula of "K"("a","b";"m") is known and the Sato-Tate conjecture suggests that none exists. The lifting formulas below, however, are often as good as an explicit evaluation. If gcd("a","p")="1" one furthermore has the important transformation:

: $K(a,a;p)\; =\; sum\_\{m=0\}^\{p-1\}\; left(frac\{m^2-4a^2\}\{p\}\; ight)\; e^\{2pi\; i\; m/p\}.$

The symbol $left(frac\{ell\}\{m\}\; ight)$ denotes the Jacobi symbol.

*Let $m=\; p^k$ with "k">"1", "p" prime and assume $gcd(p,2ab)=1$. Then "K"("a","b";"m") = "0" unless $left(frac\{a\}\{p\}\; ight)=left(frac\{b\}\{p\}\; ight)$ in which case

:$K(a,b;\; m)\; =\; 2\; left(frac\{ell\}\{m\}\; ight)\; sqrt\{m\}cdot\; ext\{Re\}left(varepsilon\_\{m\}\; e^\{2pi\; i\; frac\{2ell\}\{m\; ight).$Here $varepsilon\_m$ for odd "m" is defined to be "1" if $mequiv\; 1\; ext\{mod\}\; 4$ and $i\; =\; sqrt\{-1\}$ if $mequiv\; 3\; ext\{mod\}\; 4$ and $ell$ is chosen in such a way that $ell\; equiv\; ab\; ext\{mod\}\; m$. This formula was first found by Hans SalieHans Salie, "Uber die Kloostermanschen Summen S(u,v; q)", Math. Zeit. 34 (1931-32) pp. 91-109.] and there are many simple proofs in the literature [ Williams, Kenneth S. "Note on the Kloosterman sum", Transactions of the American Mathematical Society 30(1), Pages: 61-62, (1971). ] .

Estimates

Because Kloosterman sums occur in the Fourier expansion of modular forms, estimates for Kloosterman sums yield estimates for Fourier coefficients of modular forms as well. The most famous estimate is due to André Weil and states:

:$$
K(a,b;m)|leq au(m) sqrt{gcd(a,b;m)} sqrt{m}.

Here $au(m)$ is the number of positive divisors of $m$. Because of the multiplicative properties of Kloosterman sums these estimates may be reduced to the case where "m" is a prime number "p". A fundamental technique of Weil reduces the estimate

:|"K"("a","b";"p")| ≤ 2√"p"

when "ab" ≠ 0 to his results on local zeta-functions. Geometrically the sum is taken along a 'hyperbola'

:"XY" = "ab"

and we consider this as defining an algebraic curve over the finite field with "p" elements. This curve has a ramified Artin-Schreier covering "C", and Weil showed that the local zeta-function of "C" has a factorization; this is the Artin L-function theory for the case of global fields that are function fields, for which Weil gives a 1938 paper of J. Weissinger as reference (the next year he gave a 1935 paper of Hasse as earlier reference for the idea; given Weil's rather denigratory remark on the abilities of analytic number theorists to work out this example themselves, in his "Collected Papers", these ideas were presumably 'folklore' of quite long standing). The non-polar factors are of type

:1 − "Kt"

where "K" is a Kloosterman sum. The estimate then follows from Weil's basic work of 1940.

This technique in fact shows much more generally that complete exponential sums 'along' algebraic varieties have good estimates, depending on the Weil conjectures in dimension > 1. It has been pushed much further by Pierre Deligne, Gérard Laumon, and Nicholas Katz.

Lifting of Kloosterman sums

Although the Kloosterman sums may not be calculated in general they may be "lifted" to algebraic number fields, which often yields more convenient formulas. Let $au$ be a squarefree integer with $gcd(\; au,m)=1$. Assume that for any prime factor "p" of "m" we have $left(frac\{\; au\}\{p\}\; ight)=-1$. Then for all integers "a","b" coprime to "m" we have

:$K(a,b;\; m)\; =\; (-1)^\{Omega(m)\}\; sum\_\{v,w\; ext\{mod\}\; m,,\; v^2-\; au\; w^2equiv\; ab\; ext\{mod\}\; m\}\; e^\{4pi\; i\; v/m\}.$Here $Omega(m)$ is the number of prime factors of "m" counting multiplicity.The sum on the right can be reinterpreted as a sum over algebraic integers in the field $mathbb\{Q\}(sqrt\{\; au\})$. This formula is due to Yangbo Ye, inspired by Don Zagier and extending the work of Hervé Jacquet and Ye on the relative trace formula for $ext\{Gl\}\_2$ [ Ye, Y. "The lifting of Kloosterman sums", J. of Number Theory 51, Pages: 275-287, (1995).] . Indeed, much more general exponential sums can be lifted [ Ye, Y. "The lifting of an exponential sum to a cyclic algebraic number field of prime degree", Transactions of the American Mathematical Society 350(12), Pages: 5003-5015, (1998).] .

Kuznetsov trace formula

The Kuznetsov or "relative trace" formula connects Kloosterman sums at a deep level with the spectral theory of automorphic forms. Originally this could have been stated as follows. Let

:$g:\; mathbb\{R\}\; ightarrow\; mathbb\{R\}$

be a sufficiently "well behaved" function. Then one calls identities of the following type "Kuznetsov trace formula":

:$sum\_\{cequiv\; 0,\; ext\{mod\}\; N\}\; c^\{-r\}\; K(m,n,c)\; gleft(frac\{4pi\; sqrt\{mn\{c\}\; ight)\; =\; ext\{Integral\; transform\}\; +\; ext\{Spectral\; terms\}.$

The integral transform part is some integral transform of "g" and the spectral part is a sum of Fourier coefficients, taken over spaces of holomorphic and non-holomorphic modular forms twisted with some integral transform of "g". The Kuznetsov trace formula was found by Kuznetsov while studying the growth of weight zero automorphic functions [ N.V. Kuznecov, "Petersson's conjecture for forms of weight zero and Linnik's conjecture. Sums of Kloosterman sums", Mathematics of the USSR-Sbornik 39(3), (1981). ] . Using estimates on Kloosterman sums he was able to derive estimates for Fourier coefficients of modular forms in cases where Pierre Deligne's proof of the Weil conjectures was not applicable.

It was later translated by Jacquet to a representation theoretic framework. Let $G$ be a reductive group over a number field "F" and $Hsubset\; G$ be a subgroup. While the usual trace formula studies the harmonic analysis on "G", the relative trace formula a tool for studying the harmonic analysis on the symmetric space $G/H$. For an overview and numerous applications see the references [Cogdell, J.W. and I. Piatetski-Shapiro, "The arithmetic and spectral analysis of Poincaré series", volume 13 of "Perspectives in mathematics". Academic Press Inc., Boston, MA, (1990).] .

History

Weil's estimate can now be studied in W. M. Schmidt, "Equations over finite fields: an elementary approach", 2nd. edn. (Kendrick Press, 2004). The underlying ideas here are due to S. Stepanov and draw inspiration from Axel Thue's work in Diophantine approximation.

There are many connections between Kloosterman sums and modular forms. In fact the sums first appeared (minus the name) in a 1912 paper of Henri Poincaré on modular forms. Hans Salie introduced a form of Kloosterman sum that is twisted by a Dirichlet character: such Salie sums have an elementary evaluation This is a test ] .

After the discovery of important formulae connecting Kloosterman sums with non-holomorphic modular forms by Kuznetsov in 1979, which contained some 'savings on average' over the square root estimate, there were further developments by Iwaniec and Deshouillers in a seminal paper in "Inventiones Mathematicae" (1982). Subsequent applications to analytic number theory were worked out by a number of authors, particularly Enrico Bombieri, Fouvry, Friedlander and Iwaniec.

The field remains somewhat inaccessible. A detailed introduction to the spectral theory needed to understand the Kuznetsov formulae is given in R. C. Baker, "Kloosterman Sums and Maass Forms", vol. I (Kendrick press, 2003). Also relevant for students and researchers interested in the field is H. Iwaniec and E. Kowalski, "Analytic Number Theory" (American Mathematical Society).

References

*André Weil, "On some exponential sums", (1948) Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. 34, 204-207
*cite book | author = Henryk Iwaniek, Emmanuel Kowalski | title = Analytic number theory | publisher = American Mathematical Society | year = 2004 | id=ISBN 0-8218-3633-1

External links

*mathworld|urlname=KloostermansSum|title=Kloosterman's Sum
*planetmath reference|id=4769|title=Kloosterman sum