A Gauss sum estimate in arbitrary finite fields

We establish bounds on exponential sums ${\sum }_{x\in {\mathbb{F}}_q}\psi (x^n)$ where $q=p^m$, p prime, and ψ an additive character on ${\mathbb{F}}_q$. They extend the earlier work of Bourgain, Glibichuk, and Konyagin to fields that are not of prime order $(m?2)$. More precisely, a non-trivial estimate is obtained provided n satisfies $\gcd (n,\frac{q?1}{p^{\nu }?1})<p^{?\nu }{q}^{1?\epsilon }$ for all $1?\nu <m$, $\nu |m$, where $\epsilon >0$ is arbitrary. To cite this article: J. Bourgain, M.-C. Chang, C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris, Ser. I 342 (2006).