This expository paper is based on the author's series of lectures delivered at the January 1999 Mini-course in Number Theory, held at Sogang University (Seoul). The aim is to give an elementary and self-contained introduction to the theory of Newton polygons (namely, the $p$-adic Riemann hypothesis) for L-functions of exponential sums over a finite field.
The main idea of our approach is to establish a suitable local to global principal which would allowus to reduce the harder ``global'' case to various easier well understood "local" cases for which Stickelberger's theorem applies. For this purpose, a systematic decomposition method was introduced in our earlier paper and several decomposition theorems were proved, including the facial decomposition theorem, the star decomposition theorem and the hyperplane decomposition theorem. These theorems easily recover previously known results on Newton polygons of exponential sums. They are also enough for a number of further applications such as Mazur's conjecture for a generic hypersurface and a weaker form of the more general Adolphson-Sperber conjecture for a generic exponential sum. Using our earlier method, we have recently found a more flexible collapsing decomposition theorem. This theorem gives a fairly satisfactory answer to the full form of the Adolphson-Sperber conjecture. In particular, as an application, we now know that the full form of the Adolphson-Sperber conjecture is true in every low dimension $n\leq 3$ but false in every high dimension $n\geq 4$. These results are explained in these notes.
In this article, we consider weighted sums of generalized polygonal numbers with coefficients $1$ or $2$. We show that for any $m\ge10$, those weighted sums of generalized $m$-gonal numbers represent every non-negative integers if they only represent $1$, $m-4$, and $m-2$. Furthermore, we study representations of sums of four generalized polygonal numbers with coefficients $1$ or $2$.
In this paper, we study the Newton polygons for the $L$-functions of $n$-variable generalized Kloosterman sums. Generally, the Newton polygon has a topological lower bound, called the Hodge polygon. In order to determine the Hodge polygon, we explicitly construct a basis of the top dimensional Dwork cohomology. Using Wan's decomposition theorem and diagonal local theory, we obtain when the Newton polygon coincides with the Hodge polygon. In particular, we concretely get the slope sequence for $L$-function of $\bar{F}(\barλ,x):=\sum_{i=1}^nx_i^{a_i}+\barλ\prod_{i=1}^nx_i^{-1}$.
In this paper, we show that certain sums of generalized $m$-gonal numbers represent every positive integer if and only if they represent every positive integer up to an explicit bound $C_m$, verifying a conjecture of Sun for sufficiently large positive integers.
For a natural number $m$, generalized $m$-gonal numbers are those numbers of the form $p_m(x)=\frac{(m-2)x^2-(m-4)x}{2}$ with $x\in \mathbb Z$. In this paper we establish conditions on $m$ for which the ternary sum $p_m(x)+p_m(y)+p_m(z)$ is almost universal.
The $L$-function of exponential sums associated to the generic polynomial of degree $d$ in $n$ variables over a finite field of characteristic $p$ is studied. A polygon called the Frobenius polygon of the generic polynomial of degree $d$ in $n$ variables over a finite field of characteristic $p$ is defined. A $p$-adic Riemann hypothesis is formulated. It asserts that the Newton polygon of the $L$-function coincides with the Frobenius polygon when $p$ is large enough. This $p$-adic Riemann hypothesis is proved when $n=2$ and $p\equiv-1({\rm mod }\ d)$. In general, it is proved that the Newton p…
An integer of the form $p_m(x)= \frac{(m-2)x^2-(m-4)x}{2} \ (m\ge 3)$, for some integer $x$ is called a generalized polygonal number of order $m$. A ternary sum $Φ_{i,j,k}^{a,b,c}(x,y,z)=ap_{i+2}(x)+bp_{j+2}(y)+cp_{k+2}(z)$ of generalized polygonal numbers, for some positive integers $a,b,c$ and some integers $1\leq i\leq j \leq k$, is said to be universal over $\mathbb{Z}$ if the equation $Φ_{i,j,k}^{a,b,c}(x,y,z)=n$ has an integer solution $x,y,z$ for any nonnegative integer $n$. In this article, we prove the universalities of $17$ ternary sums of generalized polygonal numbers, which was con…
For each natural number $m\ge 3$, let $P_m(x)$ denote the generalized $m$-gonal number $\frac{(m-2)x^2-(m-4)x}{2}$ with $x\in\mathbb{Z}$. In this paper, with the help of the congruence theta function, we establish conditions on $a$, $b$, $c$ for which the sum $P_a(x)+P_b(y)+P_c(z)$ represents all but finitely many positive integers.
In this paper, we enumerate Newton polygons asymptotically. The number of Newton polygons is computable by a simple recurrence equation, but unexpectedly the asymptotic formula of its logarithm contains growing oscillatory terms. As the terms come from non-trivial zeros of the Riemann zeta function, an estimation of the amplitude of the oscillating part is equivalent to the Riemann hypothesis.
For each integer $m\ge3$, let $P_m(x)$ denote the generalized $m$-gonal number $\frac{(m-2)x^2-(m-4)x}{2}$ with $x\in\mathbb{Z}$. Given positive integers $a,b,c,k$ and an odd prime number $p$ with $p\nmid c$, we employ the theory of ternary quadratic forms to determine completely when the mixed sum $ax^2+by^2+cP_{p^k+2}(z)$ represents all but finitely many positive integers.
We review the Shimura-Taniyama method for computing the Newton polygon of an abelian variety with complex multiplication. We apply this method to cyclic covers of the projective line branched at three points. As an application, we produce multiple new examples of Newton polygons that occur for Jacobians of smooth curves in characteristic $p$. Under certain congruence conditions on $p$, these include: the supersingular Newton polygon for each genus $g$ with $4 \leq g \leq 11$; nine non-supersingular Newton polygons with $p$-rank $0$ with $4 \leq g \leq 11$; and, for all $g \geq 5$, the Newton p…
We study the intersection of the Torelli locus with the Newton polygon stratification of the modulo $p$ reduction of certain PEL-type Shimura varieties. We develop a clutching method to show that the intersection of the open Torelli locus with some Newton polygon strata is non-empty. This allows us to give a positive answer, under some compatibility conditions, to a question of Oort about smooth curves in characteristic $p$ whose Newton polygons are an amalgamate sum. As an application, we produce infinitely many new examples of Newton polygons that occur for smooth curves that are cyclic cove…
We show that for a monic polynomial $f(x)$ over a number field $K$ containing a global permutation polynomial of degree $>1$ as its composition factor, the Newton Polygon of $f\mod\mathfrak p$ does not converge for $\mathfrak p$ passing through all finite places of $K$. In the rational number field case, our result is the "only if" part of a conjecture of Wan about limiting Newton polygons.
In this paper we construct a Dwork theory for general exponential sums over affinoids in Witt towers. Using this, we compute the degree of the $L$-function, its Hodge polygon and examine when the Hodge and Newton polygons coincide.
The purpose of this article is to study Newton polygons of certain abelian $L$-functions on curves. Let $X$ be a smooth affine curve over a finite field $\mathbb{F}_q$ and let $ρ:π_1(X) \to \mathbb{C}_p^\times$ be a finite character of order $p^n$. By previous work of the first author, the Newton polygon $\mathrm{NP}(ρ)$ lies above a `Hodge polygon' $\mathrm{HP}(ρ)$, which is defined using local ramification invariants of $ρ$. In this article we study the touching between these two polygons. We prove that $\mathrm{NP}(ρ)$ and $\mathrm{HP}(ρ)$ share a vertex if and only if a corresponding verte…
Let $p$ be a prime number. Every $n$-variable polynomial $f(\underline x)$ over a finite field of characteristic $p$ defines an Artin--Schreier--Witt tower of varieties whose Galois group is isomorphic to $\mathbb{Z}_p$. Our goal of this paper is to study the Newton polygon of the $L$-function associated to a finite character of $\mathbb{Z}_p$ and a generic polynomial whose convex hull is an $n$-dimensional paralleltope $Δ$. We denote this polygon by $\mathrm{GNP}(Δ)$. We prove a lower bound of $\mathrm{GNP}(Δ)$, which is called the improved Hodge polygon $\mathrm{IHP}(Δ)$. We show that $\math…
For a natural number $m$, generalized $m$-gonal numbers are defined by the formula $p_m(x)=\frac{(m-2)x^2-(m-4)x}{2}$ with $x\in \mathbb Z$. In this paper, we determine a criterion on $a,b,c,m$ for which the weighted ternary sum $P_{a,b,c,m}:=ap_m(x)+bp_m(y)+cp_m(z)$ is almost universal. We also prove for some $a,b,c,m$ that the form $P_{a,b,c,m}$ is not almost universal, while it represents all possible congruence classes.
By a result of Moonen, there are exactly 20 positive-dimensional families of cyclic covers of the projective line for which the Torelli image is open and dense in the associated Shimura variety. For each of these, we compute the Newton polygons, and the $μ$-ordinary Ekedahl--Oort type, occurring in the characteristic $p$ reduction of the Shimura variety. We prove that all but a few of the Newton polygons appear on the open Torelli locus. As an application, we produce multiple new examples of Newton polygons and Ekedahl--Oort types of Jacobians of smooth curves in characteristic $p$. Under cert…
In this paper, we answer a question due to Y. André related to B. Dwork's conjecture on a specialization of the logarithmic growth of solutions of $p$-adic linear differential equations. Precisely speaking, we explicitly construct a $\nabla$-module $M$ over $\mathbb{Q}_p[[X]]_0$ of rank 2 such that the left endpoint of the special log-growth Newton polygon of $M$ is strictly above the left endpoint of the generic log-growth Newton polygon of $M$.
In this article we study the behavior of Newton polygons along $\mathbb{Z}_p$-towers of curves. Fix an ordinary curve $X$ over a finite field $\mathbb{F}_q$ of characteristic $p$. By a $\mathbb{Z}_p$-tower $X_\infty/X$ we mean a tower of covers $ \dots \to X_2 \to X_1 \to X$ with $\mathrm{Gal}(X_n/X) \cong \mathbb{Z}/p^n\mathbb{Z}$. We show that if the ramification along the tower is sufficiently moderate, then the slopes of the Newton polygon of $X_n$ are equidistributed in the interval $[0,1]$ as $n$ tends to $\infty$. Under a stronger congruence assumption on the ramification invariants, we…
Let p be a prime number. In this paper we use an old technique of Ore, based on Newton polygons, to construct in an efficient way p-integral bases of number fields defined by a p-regular equation. To illustrate the potential applications of this construction, we show how this result yields a computation of a p-integral basis of an arbitrary quartic field in terms of a defining equation.
Let k be a perfect field, and K be a totally ramified extension of K_0 = Frac W(k) of degree e. To a semi-stable p-adic representation of G_K (the absolute Galois group of K), one can classicaly associate two polygons : the Hodge polygon et the Newton polygon. It is well known that the former lies below the latter, and that they have same endpoints. In this note, we introduce a third polygon gotten from the semi-simplification of the representation mod p, and, under some conditions on Hodge-Tate weights, we prove that it lies above the Hodge polygon again with same endpoint. We finally examine…
To understand L-function is an important fundamental question in Number Theory, but there are few specific results on it, especially the calculation of its Newton polygon. Following Dwork's method it is hard to calculate an exact example, even on the case of one variable. There are only three such examples till now, one of which has some mistakes. In this paper we calculate L-functions with p-adic Gauss sums and give a formula in power series(theorem 1.2.). After that we discuss Newton polygons NP(f/F_p,T) of L-functions of one variable polynomials and give a method to calculate its small slop…
We develop a theory of arithmetic Newton polygons of higher order, that provides the factorization of a separable polynomial over a $p$-adic field, together with relevant arithmetic information about the fields generated by the irreducible factors. This carries out a program suggested by Ø. Ore. As an application, we obtain fast algorithms to compute discriminants, prime ideal decomposition and integral bases of number fields.
Let $χ$ be an order $c$ multiplicative character of a finite field and $f(x)=x^d+λx^e$ a binomial with $(d,e)=1$. We study the twisted classical and $T$-adic Newton polygons of $f$. When $p>(d-e)(2d-1)$, we give a lower bound of Newton polygons and show that they coincide if $p$ does not divide a certain integral constant depending on $p\bmod {cd}$. We conjecture that this condition holds if $p$ is large enough with respect to $c,d$ by combining all known results and the conjecture given by Zhang-Niu. As an example, we show that it holds for $e=d-1$.
We study the $p$-adic absolute value of the roots of the $L$-functions associated to certain twisted character sums, and additive character sums associated to polynomials $P(x^d)$, when $P$ varies among the space of polynomial of fixed degree $e$ over a finite field of characteristic $p$. For sufficiently large $p$, we determine in both cases generic Newton polygons for these $L$-functions, which is a lower bound for the Newton polygons, and the set of polynomials of degree $e$ for which this generic polygon is attained. In the case of twisted sums, we show that the lower polygon defined in \c…
A conjecture of Le says that the Deligne polytope $Δ_d$ is generically ordinary if $p\equiv 1\ (\!\!\bmod\ D(Δ_d))$, where $D(Δ_d)$ is a combinatorial constant determined by $Δ_d$. In this paper a counterexample is given to show that the conjecture is not true in general.
For prime $p\equiv-1\bmod d$ and $q$ a power of $p$, we obtain the slopes of the $q$-adic Newton polygons of $L$-functions of $x^d+ax^{d-1}\in \mathbb{F}_q[x]$ with respect to finite characters $χ$ when $p$ is larger than an explicit bound depending only on $d$ and $\log_p q$. The main tools are Dwork's trace formula and Zhu's rigid transform theorem.
We give explicit, polynomial-time computable formulas for the number of integer points in any two-dimensional rational polygon. A rational polygon is one whose vertices have rational coordinates. We find that the basic building blocks of our formulas are Dedekind-Rademacher sums, which are polynomial-time computable finite Fourier series. As a by-product we rederive a reciprocity law for these sums due to Gessel, which generalizes the reciprocity law for the classical Dedekind sums. In addition, our approach shows that Gessel's reciprocity law is a special case of the one for Dedekind-Rademach…
We prove an Euler-Maclaurin formula for double polygonal sums and, as a corollary, we obtain approximate quadrature formulas for integrals of smooth functions over polygons with integer vertices. Our Euler-Maclaurin formula is in the spirit of Pick's theorem on the number of integer points in an integer polygon and involves weighted Riemann sums, using tools from Harmonic analysis. Finally, we also exhibit a classical trick, dating back to Huygens and Newton, to accelerate convergence of these Riemann sums.
We study the p-adic valuations of roots of L-functions associated with certain families of exponential sums of Laurent polynomials in n variables over a finite field. The families we consider are reflection and Kloosterman variants of diagonal polynomials. Using decomposition theorems of Wan, we determine the Newton and Hodge polygons of a non-degenerate Laurent polynomial in one of these families.
We present an algorithm for computing discriminants and prime ideal decomposition in number fields. The algorithm is a refinement of a p-adic factorization method based on Newton polygons of higher order. The running-time and memory requirements of the algorithm appear to be very good: for a given prime number p, it computes the p-valuation of the discriminant and the factorization of p in a number field of degree 1000 in a few seconds, in a personal computer.
In this paper, we consider the following $(A, B)$-polynomial $f$ over finite field: $$f(x_0,x_1,\cdots,x_n)=x_0^Ah(x_1,\cdots,x_n)+g(x_1,\cdots,x_n)+P_B(1/x_0),$$ where $h$ is a Deligne polynomial of degree $d$, $g$ is an arbitrary polynomial of degree $< dB/(A+B)$ and $P_B(y)$ is a one-variable polynomial of degree $\le B$. Let $Δ$ be the Newton polyhedron of $f$ at infinity. We show that $Δ$ is generically ordinary if $p\equiv 1 \mod D$, where $D$ is a constant only determined by $Δ$. In other words, we prove that the Adolphson--Sperber conjecture is true for $Δ$.
Let $p$ be an odd prime. What are the possible Newton polygons for a curve in characteristic $p$? Equivalently, which Newton strata intersect the Torelli locus in $\mathcal{A}_g$? In this note, we study the Newton polygons of certain curves with $\mathbb{Z}/p\mathbb{Z}$-actions. Many of these curves exhibit unlikely intersections between the Torelli locus and the Newton stratification in $\mathcal{A}_g$. Here is one example of particular interest: fix a genus $g$. We show that for any $k$ with $\frac{2g}{3}-\frac{2p(p-1)}{3}\geq 2k(p-1)$, there exists a curve of genus $g$ whose Newton polygon …
In this article we construct for each integer $n\ge 2$ an abelian variety $A$ of dimension $n$ defined over a number field for which there exists a symmetric slope sequence of length $2n$ that does not appear as the slope sequence of $\widetilde A$ for all good reductions $\widetilde A$ of $A$.
The $C$-function of $T$-adic exponential sums is studeid. An explicit arithmetic bound is established for the Newton polygon of the $C$-function. This polygon lies above the Hodge polygon. It gives a sup-Hodge bound of the $C$-function of $p$-power order exponential sums.
In this paper we construct a generating polynomial over the rationals for the generic Newton polygon for the L function of exponential sums of the family of f = x^d+ a x^s parameterized by a, and prove some of its key properties. The generating polynomial encodes information of and determines the generic Newton polygon at each prime p when p is large enough, and vice versa.
Considering the L-function of exponential sums associated to a polynomial over a finite field F_q, Deligne proved that a reciprocal root's p-adic order is a rational number in the interval [0, 1]. Based on hypergeometric theory, in this paper we improve this result that there are only finitely many possible forms of Newton polygons for the L-function of degree d polynomials independent of p, when p is larger than a constant D^*(theorem 4.3), i.e., a reciprocal root's p-adic order has form (up-v)/(D^*(p-1)) in which u, v have finitely many possible values. Furthermore, when p>D^*, to determine …
Let P(x) be a one-variable Laurent polynomial of degree (d_1,d_2) over a finite field of characteristic p. For any fixed positive integer s not divisible by p, we prove that the (normalized) p-adic Newton polygon of the L-functions of exponential sums of P(x^s) has a tight lower bound which we call `Hodge-Stickelberger polygon', depending only on d_1,d_2,s, and (p mod s). This Hodge-Stickelberger polygon is a weighted convolution of a `Hodge polygon' for L-function of exponential sum of P(x) and the `Newton polygon' for L-function of exponential sum of x^s (given by the classical Stickelberger…
Let $p$ be a prime number. Every two-variable polynomial $f(x_1, x_2)$ over a finite field of characteristic $p$ defines an Artin--Schreier--Witt tower of surfaces whose Galois group is isomorphic to $\mathbb Z_p$. Our goal of this paper is to study the Newton polygon of the $L$-functions associated to a finite character of $\mathbb{Z}_p$ and a generic polynomial whose convex hull is a fixed triangle $Δ$. We denote this polygon by $\textrm{GNP}(Δ)$. We prove a lower bound of $\textrm{GNP}(Δ)$, which we call the improved Hodge polygon $\textrm{IHP}(Δ)$, and we conjecture that $\textrm{GNP}(Δ)$ …
In this paper we give a modular interpretation of the $k$-th symmetric power $L$-function of the Kloosterman family of exponential sums in characteristics 2 and 3, and in the case of $p=2$ and $k$ odd give the precise 2-adic Newton polygon. We also give a $p$-adic modular interpretation of Dwork's unit root $L$-function of the Kloosterman family, and give the precise 2-adic Newton polygon when $k$ is odd. In a previous paper, we gave an estimate for the $q$-adic Newton polygon of the symmetric power $L$-function of the Kloosterman family when $p \geq 5$. We discuss how this restriction on prim…
Let $m\ge3$ be an integer. The polygonal numbers of order $m+2$ are given by $p_{m+2}(n)=m\binom n2+n$ $(n=0,1,2,\ldots)$. A famous claim of Fermat proved by Cauchy asserts that each nonnegative integer is the sum of $m+2$ polygonal numbers of order $m+2$. For $(a,b)=(1,1),(2,2),(1,3),(2,4)$, we study whether any sufficiently large integer can be expressed as $$p_{m+2}(x_1) + p_{m+2}(x_2) + ap_{m+2}(x_3) + bp_{m+2}(x_4)$$ with $x_1,x_2,x_3,x_4$ nonnegative integers. We show that the answer is positive if $(a,b)\in\{(1,3),(2,4)\}$, or $(a,b)=(1,1)\ \&\ 4\mid m$, or $(a,b)=(2,2)\ \&\ m\not\equiv…
The twisted $T$-adic exponential sum associated to $x^{d}+λx$ is studied. If $λ\neq0,$ then an explicit arithmetic polygon is proved to be the Newton polygon of the twisted $C$-function of the T-adic exponential sum. It gives the Newton polygons of the $L$-functions of twisted $p$-power order exponential sums.
We prove that the radii of convergence of the solutions of a $p$-adic differential equation $\mathcal{F}$ over an affinoid domain $X$ of the Berkovich affine line are continuous functions on $X$ that factorize through the retraction of $X\toΓ$ of $X$ onto a finite graph $Γ\subseteq X$. We also prove their super-harmonicity properties. Roughly speaking, this finiteness result means that the behavior of the radii as functions on $X$ is controlled by a finite family of data.
The twisted $T$-adic exponential sum associated to a polynomial in one variable is studied. An explicit arithmetic polygon is proved to be the generic Newton polygon of the twisted $C$-function of the T-adic exponential sum. It gives the generic Newton polygon of the twisted $L$-functions of $p^m$-power order exponential sums, for all $m$.
The $T$-adic exponential sum associated to a Laurent polynomial in one variable is studied. An explicit arithmetic polygon is proved to be the generic Newton polygon of the $C$-function of the T-adic exponential sum. It gives the generic Newton polygon of $L$-functions of $p$-power order exponential sums.
In this paper, we shall precise the asymptotic behaviour of Newton polygons of $L$ functions associated to character sums, coming from some $n$ variable Laurent polynomials. In order to do this, we use the free sum on convex polytopes. This operation allows the determination of the limit of generic Newton polygons for the sum $Δ=Δ_1\oplus Δ_2$ when we know the limit of generic Newton polygons for each factor. To our knowledge, these are the first results concerning the asymptotic behaviour of Newton polygons for multivariable polynomials.
The Newton series which interpolate finite multiple harmonic sums are useful in the study of multiple zeta values (MZV's). In this paper, we prove that these Newton series can be written as multiple series. As an application, we give a formula for MZV's which contains the duality.
