English

Zeros of polynomials over finite Witt rings

Number Theory 2023-10-25 v1

Abstract

Let Fq\mathbb{F}_q denote the finite field of characteristic pp and order qq. Let Zq\mathbb{Z}_q denote the unramified extension of the pp-adic rational integers Zp\mathbb{Z}_p with residue field Fq\mathbb{F}_q. Given two positive integers m,nm,n, define a box Bm\mathcal B_m to be a subset of Zqn\mathbb{Z}_q^n with qnmq^{nm} elements such that Bm\mathcal B_m modulo pmp^m is equal to (Zq/pmZq)n(\mathbb{Z}_q/p^m \mathbb{Z}_q)^n. For a collection of nonconstant polynomials f1,,fsZq[x1,,xn]f_1,\dots,f_s\in \mathbb{Z}_q[x_1,\ldots,x_n] and positive integers m1,,msm_1,\dots,m_s, define the set of common zeros inside the box Bm\mathcal B_m to be V={XBm:  fi(X)0modpmi\mboxforall1is}.V=\{X\in \mathcal B_m:\; f_i(X)\equiv 0\mod {p^{m_i}}\mbox{ for all } 1\leq i\leq s\}. It is an interesting problem to give the sharp estimates for the pp-divisibility of V|V|. This problem has been partially solved for the three cases: (i) m=m1==ms=1m=m_1=\cdots=m_s=1, which is just the Ax-Katz theorem, (ii) m=m1==ms>1m=m_1=\cdots=m_s>1, which was solved by Katz, Marshal and Ramage, and (iii) m=1m=1, and m1,,ms1 m_1,\dots,m_s\geq 1, which was recently solved by Cao, Wan and Grynkiewicz. Based on the multi-fold addition and multiplication of the finite Witt rings over Fq\mathbb{F}_q, we investigate the remaining unconsidered case of m>1m>1 and mmjm\neq m_j for some 1js1\leq j\leq s, and finally provide a complete answer to this problem.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2310.15637,
  title  = {Zeros of polynomials over finite Witt rings},
  author = {Weihua Li and Wei Cao},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2310.15637},
  year   = {2023}
}