Two improvements in Birch's theorem on forms

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Lampert, Amichai, Snowden, Andrew
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Lampert, Amichai
Snowden, Andrew
author_facet Lampert, Amichai
Snowden, Andrew
contents Let $K$ be a Birch field, that is, a field for which every diagonal form of odd degree in sufficiently many variables admits a non-zero solution; for example, $K$ could be the field of rational numbers. Let $f_1, \ldots, f_r$ be homogeneous forms of odd degree over $K$ in $n$ variables, and let $Z$ be the variety they cut out. Birch proved if $n$ is sufficiently large then $Z(K)$ contains a non-zero point. We prove two results which show that $Z(K)$ is actually quite large. First, the Zariski closure of $Z(K)$ has bounded codimension in $\mathbf{A}^n$. And second, if the $f_i$'s have sufficiently high strength then $Z(K)$ is in fact Zariski dense in $Z$. The proofs use recent results on strength, and our methods build on recent work of Bik, Draisma, and Snowden, which established similar improvements to Brauer's theorem on forms.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2406_18498
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Two improvements in Birch's theorem on forms
Lampert, Amichai
Snowden, Andrew
Number Theory
Algebraic Geometry
Let $K$ be a Birch field, that is, a field for which every diagonal form of odd degree in sufficiently many variables admits a non-zero solution; for example, $K$ could be the field of rational numbers. Let $f_1, \ldots, f_r$ be homogeneous forms of odd degree over $K$ in $n$ variables, and let $Z$ be the variety they cut out. Birch proved if $n$ is sufficiently large then $Z(K)$ contains a non-zero point. We prove two results which show that $Z(K)$ is actually quite large. First, the Zariski closure of $Z(K)$ has bounded codimension in $\mathbf{A}^n$. And second, if the $f_i$'s have sufficiently high strength then $Z(K)$ is in fact Zariski dense in $Z$. The proofs use recent results on strength, and our methods build on recent work of Bik, Draisma, and Snowden, which established similar improvements to Brauer's theorem on forms.
title Two improvements in Birch's theorem on forms
topic Number Theory
Algebraic Geometry
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2406.18498