Merit Factors of Polynomials Formed by Jacobi Symbols

http://dx.doi.org/10.4153/CJM-2001-002-6
Canad. J. Math. 53(2001), 33-50

  Published:2001-02-01
 Printed: Feb 2001

We give explicit formulas for the $L_4$ norm (or equivalently for the merit factors) of various sequences of polynomials related to the polynomials $$ f(z) := \sum_{n=0}^{N-1} \leg{n}{N} z^n. $$ and $$ f_t(z) = \sum_{n=0}^{N-1} \leg{n+t}{N} z^n. $$ where $(\frac{\cdot}{N})$ is the Jacobi symbol. Two cases of particular interest are when $N = pq$ is a product of two primes and $p = q+2$ or $p = q+4$. This extends work of H{\o}holdt, Jensen and Jensen and of the authors. This study arises from a number of conjectures of Erd\H{o}s, Littlewood and others that concern the norms of polynomials with $-1,1$ coefficients on the disc. The current best examples are of the above form when $N$ is prime and it is natural to see what happens for composite~$N$.