Explicit Estimates for the Number of Rational Points of Singular Complete Intersections over a Finite Field

Let $V\subset\mathbb{P}^n(\overline{F}_{\hskip-0.7mm q})$ be a complete intersection defined over a finite field $F_{\hskip-0.7mm q}$ of dimension $r$ and singular locus of dimension at most $0\le s\le r-2$. We obtain an explicit version of the Hooley--Katz estimate $||V(F_{\hskip-0.7mm q})|-p_r|=\mathcal{O}(q^{(r+s+1)/2})$, where $|V(F_{\hskip-0.7mm q})|$ denotes the number of $F_{\hskip-0.7mm q}$-rational points of $V$ and $p_r:=|\mathbb{P}^r(F_{\hskip-0.7mm q})|$. Our estimate improves all the previous estimates in several important cases. Our approach relies on tools of classical algebraic geometry. A crucial ingredient is a new effective version of the Bertini smoothness theorem, namely an explicit upper bound of the degree of a proper Zariski closed subset of $(\mathbb P^{n})^{s+1}(\overline{F}_{\hskip-0.7mm q})$ which contains all the singular linear sections of $V$ of codimension $s+1$.