Character sums to prime power moduli evaluated at binary quadratic forms

Abstract

We establish estimates for short character sums to prime power moduli evaluated at binary quadratic forms. This complements estimates established by Heath-Brown for such character sums to squarefree moduli. Our approach uses $p$-adic analysis. More precisely, we use tools from the $p$-adic theory of exponential sums, as initiated by Milićević.