An x-pseudopower to base g is a positive integer that is not a power of g, yet is so modulo p for all primes $ple x$. We improve an upper bound for the least such number, due to E.~Bach, R.~Lukes, J.~Shallit, and H.~C.~Williams. The method is based on a combination of some bounds of exponential sums with new results about the average behaviour of the multiplicative order of g modulo prime numbers.

We estimate exponential sums with the Fermat-like quotients $$ f_g(n) = \frac{g^{n-1} - 1}{n} \quad\text{and}\quad h_g(n)=\frac{g^{n-1}-1}{P(n)}, $$ where $g$ and $n$ are positive integers, $n$ is composite, and $P(n)$ is the largest prime factor of $n$. Clearly, both $f_g(n)$ and $h_g(n)$ are integers if $n$ is a Fermat pseudoprime to base $g$, and if $n$ is a Carmichael number, this is true for all $g$ coprime to $n$. Nevertheless, our bounds imply that the fractional parts $\{f_g(n)\}$ and $\{h_g(n)\}$ are uniformly distributed, on average over~$g$ for $f_g(n)$, and individually for $h_g(n)$. We also obtain similar results with the functions ${\widetilde f}_g(n) = gf_g(n)$ and ${\widetilde h}_g(n) = gh_g(n)$.

Let $\lambda$ be a fixed integer exceeding $1$ and $s_n$ any strictly increasing sequence of positive integers satisfying $s_n\le n^{15/14+o(1)}.$ In this paper we give a version of the large sieve inequality for the sequence $\lambda^{s_n}.$ In particular, we obtain nontrivial estimates of the associated trigonometric sums ``on average" and establish equidistribution properties of the numbers $\lambda^{s_n} , n\le p(\log p)^{2+\varepsilon}$, modulo $p$ for most primes $p.$

For a given elliptic curve $\E$, we obtain an upper bound on the discrepancy of sets of multiples $z_sG$ where $z_s$ runs through a sequence $\cZ=\(z_1, \dots, z_T\)$ such that $k z_1,\dots, kz_T $ is a permutation of $z_1, \dots, z_T$, both sequences taken modulo $t$, for sufficiently many distinct values of $k$ modulo $t$. We apply this result to studying an analogue of the power generator over an elliptic curve. These results are elliptic curve analogues of those obtained for multiplicative groups of finite fields and residue rings.

For $c>1$ we denote by $\pi_c(x)$ the number of integers $n \leq x$ such that $\floor{n^c}$ is prime. In 1953, Piatetski-Shapiro has proved that $\pi_c(x) \sim \frac{x}{c\log x}$, $x \rightarrow +\infty$ holds for $c<12/11$. Many authors have extended this range, which measures our progress in exponential sums techniques. In this article we obtain $c < 1.16117\dots\;$.