Zeros of Complete Symmetric Polynomials over Finite Fields

Wan and Zhang (2021) obtained a nontrivial lower bound for the number of zeros of complete symmetric polynomials over finite fields, and proposed a problem whether their bound can be improved. In this paper, the author improves Wan-Zhang’s bound from three aspects. The proposed results are based on the estimates related to the number of certain permutations and the value sets of non-permutation polynomials associated to the complete symmetric polynomial. And the author believes that there are still possibilities to improve the bounds and hence Wan-Zhang’s bound.