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Abstract The purpose of this paper is to introduce and study the following graph-theoretic paradigm. Let$$ \begin{align*}T_Kf(x)=\int K(x,y) f(y) d\mu(y),\end{align*} $$where$$f: X \to {\Bbb R}$$,Xa set, finite or infinite, andKand$$\mu $$denote a suitable kernel and a measure, respectively. Given a connected ordered graphGonnvertices, consider the multi-linear form$$ \begin{align*}\Lambda_G(f_1,f_2, \dots, f_n)=\int_{x^1, \dots, x^n \in X} \ \prod_{(i,j) \in {\mathcal E}(G)} K(x^i,x^j) \prod_{l=1}^n f_l(x^l) d\mu(x^l),\end{align*} $$where$${\mathcal E}(G)$$is the edge set ofG. Define$$\Lambda _G(p_1, \ldots , p_n)$$as the smallest constant$$C>0$$such that the inequality(0.1)$$ \begin{align} \Lambda_G(f_1, \dots, f_n) \leq C \prod_{i=1}^n {||f_i||}_{L^{p_i}(X, \mu)} \end{align} $$holds for all nonnegative real-valued functions$$f_i$$,$$1\le i\le n$$, onX. The basic question is, how does the structure ofGand the mapping properties of the operator$$T_K$$influence the sharp exponents in (0.1). In this paper, this question is investigated mainly in the case$$X={\Bbb F}_q^d$$, thed-dimensional vector space over the field withqelements,$$K(x^i,x^j)$$is the indicator function of the sphere evaluated at$$x^i-x^j$$, and connected graphsGwith at most four vertices. 

In this paper, we prove some extensions of recent results given by Shkredov and Shparlinski on multiple character sums for some general families of polynomials over prime fields. The energies of polynomials in two and three variables are our main ingredients.