Polynomial Equations in Subgroups and Applications

Abstract: We obtain a new bound for the number of solutions to polynomial equations in cosets of multiplicative subgroups in finite fields, which generalises previous results of P. Corvaja and U. Zannier (2013). We also obtain a conditional improvement of recent results of J. Bourgain, A. Gamburd and P. Sarnak (2016) and S. V. Konyagin, S. V. Makarychev, I. E. Shparlinski and I. V. Vyugin (2019) on the structure of solutions to the reduction of the Markoff equation $x^2 + y^2 + z^2 = 3 x yz$ modulo a prime $p$.