Evaluating Prime Power Gauss and Jacobi Sums

Abstract

We show that for any mod $p^m$ characters, $\chi_1, \dots, \chi_k,$ the Jacobi sum, $$ \sum_{x_1=1}^{p^m}\dots \sum_{\substack{x_k=1\\x_1+\dots+x_k=B}}^{p^m}\chi_1(x_1)\dots \chi_k(x_k), $$ has a simple evaluation when $m$ is sufficiently large (for $m\geq 2$ if $p\nmid B$). As part of the proof we give a simple evaluation of the mod $p^m$ Gauss sums when $m\geq 2$.