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The Circle Method for Quadrics over Function Fields

Number Theory 2026-04-03 v1

Abstract

We use the circle method to count Fq(t)\mathbb{F}_q(t)-rational points of bounded naive height on a quadric hypersurface XPn1X\subseteq \mathbb{P}^{n-1} defined over Fq\mathbb{F}_q, provided that char(Fq)>2\mathrm{char}(\mathbb{F}_q)>2 and n3n\ge 3. Viewing these points as morphisms P1X\mathbb{P}^1 \to X of fixed degree, we obtain exact formulas for their number depending on the parity of nn and on the determinant of the quadratic form defining XX, including secondary terms in some cases.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2604.02067,
  title  = {The Circle Method for Quadrics over Function Fields},
  author = {Johanna Mettasch},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2604.02067},
  year   = {2026}
}

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39 pages