Double exponential sums and congruences with intervals and exponential functions modulo a prime

Abstract: Let $p$ be a large prime number and $g$ be any integer of multiplicative order $T$ modulo $p$. We obtain a new estimate of the double exponential sum $$ S=\sum_{n\in \mathcal{N}}\left|\sum_{m\in \mathcal{M} }e_p(an g^{m})\right|, \quad \gcd (a,p)=1, $$ where $\mathcal{N}$ and $\mathcal{M}$ are intervals of consecutive integers with $|\mathcal{N}|=N$ and $|\mathcal{M}|=M<T$ elements. One representative example is the following consequence of the main result: if $N=M\approx p^{1/3}$, then $|S|< N^{2-1/8 + o(1)}$. We then apply our estimate to obtain new results on additive congruences involving intervals and exponential functions.