# Moments of the number of roots of polynomials over finite fields

Let $F:=\{f\in\mathbb{F}_q[X_1,\ldots,X_n]: \textrm{deg}(f)\leq d\}$ be the set containing all $n$-variate polynomials of degree less than or equal to $d$ over finite field $\mathbb{F}_q$ of prime power $q$. Suppose that $f$ is chosen uniformly at random from $F$ and let $N(f)$ be the number of distinct roots of $f$ in $\mathbb{F}_q$, namely $N(f)=\#\{(x_1,\ldots,x_n)\in\mathbb{F}_q^n:f(x_1,\ldots,x_n)=0\}$. I am interested in (the upper bound of) the $m$-th moment $\mathbb{E}[(N(f))^m]$ for $m\geq 1$.

By Schwartz–Zippel lemma, there is an upper bound $\mathbb{E}[(N(f))^m]\leq (dq^{n-1})^m$. Is this the best possible upper bound?

• What do you mean by "the number of distinct roots of $f$ in $\mathbb{F}_q$" when $n>1$? Do you mean the number of points in $\mathbb{F}_q^n$ at which $f$ vanishes? – Daniel McLaury Mar 29 '16 at 4:46
• Thanks. Yes that's what I mean. I updated the definition in the main text. – Han Mar 29 '16 at 4:55
• when $n$ is fixed and $d \to \infty$ the number of roots $\to$ ? – reuns Mar 29 '16 at 5:13
• For $n=1$ and $d\to\infty$, there are at most $q$ distinct roots where the function can be expressed as $f(x)=(x^q-x)g(x)$. In fact I am more interested in the cases $q>> n,m,d$, but still thanks. – Han Mar 29 '16 at 5:32