Erdos distance problem in vector spaces over finite fields

We study the Erdos/Falconer distance problem in vector spaces over finite fields. Let F-q be a finite field with q elements and take E subset of F-q(d), d >= 2. We develop a Fourier analytic machinery, analogous to that developed by Mattila in the continuous case, for the study of distance sets in F-q(d) to provide estimates for minimum cardinality of the distance set Delta(E) in terms of the cardinality of E. Bounds for Gauss and Kloosterman sums play an important role in the proof.