Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2013/iii/paper-23/1/d/solution

Every nonprincipal Dirichlet character modulo the prime is primitive, so its finite Fourier coefficients have modulus one off zero; the coefficient at zero is zero by character orthogonality. Fourier inversion theorem gives
The finite geometric series gives
The printed hint omits from the exponential; its literal constant summand would not obey the bound for arbitrary . The geometric-series calculation proves the needed estimate independently. Pairing with gives
The last sum is a harmonic number. This proves the Pólya–Vinogradov inequality uniformly in and ; complete blocks of length also vanish by Orthogonality of Dirichlet characters.

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