For an odd prime p and an integer w ≥ 1, polynomial quotients $q_{p,w}\left(u\right)$ are defined by $q_{p,w}\left(u\right)\equiv (u^w-u^{wp})/pmodp$ with $0\le q_{p,w}\left(u\right)\le p-1$, u ≥ 0, which are generalizations of Fermat quotients $q_{p,p-1}\left(u\right)$. First, we estimate the number of elements $1\le u<N\le p$ for which $f\left(u\right)\equiv q_{p,w}\left(u\right)modp$ for a given polynomial f(x) over the finite field ${}_p$. In particular, for the case f(x)=x we get bounds on the number of fixed points of polynomial quotients. Second, before we study the problem of estimating the smallest number (called the Waring number) of summands needed to express each element of...

We consider Weil sums of binomials of the form $W_{F,d}\left(a\right)={\sum }_{x\in F}\psi (x^d-ax)$, where F is a finite field, ψ: F → ℂ is the canonical additive character, $gcd(d,|F^{\times }\left|\right)=1$, and $a\in F^{\times }$. If we fix F and d, and examine the values of $W_{F,d}\left(a\right)$ as a runs through $F^{\times }$, we always obtain at least three distinct values unless d is degenerate (a power of the characteristic of F modulo $|F^{\times }|$). Choices of F and d for which we obtain only three values are quite rare and desirable in a wide variety of applications. We show that if F is a field of order 3ⁿ with n odd, and $d=3^r+2$ with...