Using Stepanovʹs method for exponential sums involving rational functions Original Research Article

For any additive character ψ and multiplicative character χ on a finite field image, and rational functions f,g in image, we show that the elementary Stepanov–Schmidt method can be used to obtain the corresponding Weil bound for the sum image where image is the set of the poles of f and g. We also determine precisely the number of characteristic values ωi of modulus q1/2 and the number of modulus 1.