On L-functions of certain exponential sums

Let ${\mathbb{F}}_q$ denote the finite field of order q of characteristic p. We study the p-adic valuations for zeros of L-functions associated with exponential sums of the following family of Laurent polynomials$f(x)=a_1{x}_{n+1}(x_1+\frac{1}{x_1})+\cdots +a_n{x}_{n+1}(x_n+\frac{1}{x_n})+a_{n+1}{x}_{n+1}+\frac{1}{x_{n+1}}$ where $a_i\in {\mathbb{F}}_q^{⁎}$, $i=1,2,\dots ,n+1$. When $n=2$, the estimate of the associated exponential sum appears in Iwaniecʼs work on small eigenvalues of the Laplace–Beltrami operator acting on automorphic functions with respect to the group ${\Gamma }_0(p)$, and Adolphson and Sperber gave complex absolute values for zeros of the corresponding L-function. Using the decomposition theory of Wan, we determine the generic Newton polygon (q-adic values of the reciprocal zeros) of the L-function. Working on the chain level version of Dworkʼs trace formula and using Wanʼs decomposition theory, we are able to give an explicit Hasse polynomial for the generic Newton polygon in low dimensions, i.e., $n⩽3$.     

Extremal product-one free sequences in Dihedral and Dicyclic Groups

Let $G$ be a finite group, written multiplicatively. The Davenport constant of $G$ is the smallest positive integer $D\left(G\right)$ such that every sequence of $G$ with $D\left(G\right)$ elements has a non-empty subsequence with product $1$. Let $D_{2n}$ be the Dihedral Group of order $2n$ and $Q_{4n}$ be the Dicyclic Group of order $4n$. Zhuang and Gao (2005) showed that $D\left(D_{2n}\right)=n+1$ and Bass (2007) showed that $D\left(Q_{4n}\right)=2n+1$. In this paper, we give explicit characterizations of all sequences $S$ of $G$ such that $\left|S\right|=D\left(G\right)?1$ and $S$ is free of subsequences whose product is 1, where $G$ is equal to $D_{2n}$ or $Q_{4n}$ for some $n$.