Improvements of The Weil Bound For Artin-Schreier Curves

Abstract

For Artin-Schreier curve y^q -y = f(x) defined over a finite field F_q of q elements, we show that the Weil bound for the number of the rational points over extension fields of F_q can often be greatly improved, essentially removing an extra factor of size about the square root of q in the error term.

revised version, title slightly changed, to appear in Math Ann