Quadratic exponential sum (${\sum }_{n=1}^{N}e(\alpha n^2+\beta n)$)

A quadratic exponential sum has a polynomial phase of degree two. Its multiplicative derivative at lag $h$ has the linear phase $2\alpha hn$ up to a constant factor. This degree reduction lets the Van der Corput inequality for finite scalar sequences reduce its size to estimates for finite geometric series.

For coprime integers $a,q$ with $1\le q\le Q$ and $|\alpha -a/q|\le 1/(qQ)$, expand the squared quadratic exponential sum by its difference $h$. The exponential geometric sum bound gives $|S{|}^2\ll N+{\sum }_{h\le N}\min (N+1,\Vert 2\alpha h{\Vert }^{-1})$. In each block of length at most $q/4$, the rotations $2\alpha h$ are separated by at least $1/(2q)$: the reduced denominator of $2a/q$ is at least $q/2$, and the approximation error between two block points is at most $1/(2q)$. The separated reciprocal-distance sum bounds each block by $O(N+q\log (2N))$. There are $O(N/q+1)$ blocks, giving the displayed inequality. For bounded $q$ the trivial estimate supplies the same conclusion.