Bounds on short character sums and L-functions for characters with a smooth modulus

Abstract: We combine a classical idea of Postnikov (1956) with the method of Korobov (1974) for estimating double Weyl sums, deriving new bounds on short character sums when the modulus $q$ has a small core $\prod_{p\mid q}p$. Using this estimate, we improve certain bounds of Gallagher (1972) and Iwaniec (1974) for the corresponding $L$-functions. In turn, this allows us to improve the error term in the asymptotic formula for primes in short arithmetic progressions modulo a power of a fixed prime. As yet another application of our bounds, we substantially extend the region free of Siegel zeros.