For a prime $p$ and positive integers $\ell \<k\<h\<p$ with $d=(h,k,\ell ,p-1)$, we show that $M$, the number of simultaneous solutions $x,y,z,w$ in ${\mathbb{Z}}_p^{*}$ to $x^h+y^h=z^h+w^h$, $x^k+y^k=z^k+w^k$, $x^{\ell }+y^{\ell }=z^{\ell }+w^{\ell }$, satisfies$${\displaystyle M\le 3d^2{(p-1)}^2+25hk\ell (p-1).}$$When $hk\ell =o\left(p{d}^2\right)$ we obtain a precise asymptotic count on $M$. This leads to the new twisted exponential sum bound$${\displaystyle \left|\sum _{x=1}^{p-1}\chi \left(x\right)e^{2\pi if\left(x\right)/p}\right|\le 3^{\frac{1}{4}}{d}^{\frac{1}{2}}{p}^{\frac{7}{8}}+\sqrt{5}{\left(hk\ell \right)}^{\frac{1}{4}}{p}^{\frac{5}{8}},}$$for trinomials $f=a{x}^h+b{x}^k+c{x}^{\ell }$, and to results on the average size of such sums.

Let 1 < c < 10/9. For large real numbers R > 0, and a small constant η > 0, the inequality $|p{₁}^c+p{₂}^c+p{₃}^c-R|<R^{-\eta }$ holds for many prime triples. This improves work of Kumchev [Acta Arith. 89 (1999)].

We consider a variety of Euler’s sum of powers conjecture, i.e., whether the Diophantine system $$\left\{\begin{array}{c}n=a_1+a_2+\cdots +a_{s-1},\hfill \\ a_1{a}_2\cdots a_{s-1}(a_1+a_2+\cdots +a_{s-1})=b^s\hfill \end{array}\right.$$ has positive integer or rational solutions $n$, $b$, $a_i$, $i=1,2,\cdots ,s-1$, $s\ge 3.$ Using the theory of elliptic curves, we prove that it has no positive integer solution for $s=3$, but there are infinitely many positive integers $n$ such that it has a positive integer solution for $s\ge 4$. As a corollary, for $s\ge 4$ and any positive integer $n$, the above Diophantine system has a positive rational solution. Meanwhile, we give conditions such that...