Sharp bounds for maximal sums of odd order Dirichlet characters

Abstract: Let $g \geq 3$ be fixed and odd, and for large $q$ let $\chi$ be a primitive Dirichlet character modulo $q$ of order $g$. Conditionally on GRH we improve the existing upper bounds in the P\'{o}lya-Vinogradov inequality for $\chi$, showing that $$ M(\chi) := \max_{t \geq 1} \left|\sum_{n \leq t} \chi(n) \right| \ll \sqrt{q} \frac{(\log\log q)^{1-\delta_g} (\log\log\log\log\log q)^{\delta_g}}{(\log\log\log q)^{1/4}}, $$ where $\delta_g := 1-\tfrac{g}{\pi}\sin(\pi/g)$. Furthermore, we show unconditionally that there is an infinite sequence of order $g$ primitive characters $\chi_j$ modulo $q_j$ for which $$ M(\chi_j) \gg \sqrt{q_j} \frac{(\log\log q_j)^{1-\delta_g} (\log\log\log\log\log q_j)^{\delta_g}}{(\log\log\log q_j)^{1/4}}, $$ so that our GRH bound is sharp up to the implicit constant. This improves on previous work of Granville and Soundararajan, of Goldmakher, and of Lamzouri and the author.