English

Two improvements in Birch's theorem on forms

Number Theory 2024-06-27 v1 Algebraic Geometry

Abstract

Let KK 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, KK could be the field of rational numbers. Let f1,,frf_1, \ldots, f_r be homogeneous forms of odd degree over KK in nn variables, and let ZZ be the variety they cut out. Birch proved if nn is sufficiently large then Z(K)Z(K) contains a non-zero point. We prove two results which show that Z(K)Z(K) is actually quite large. First, the Zariski closure of Z(K)Z(K) has bounded codimension in An\mathbf{A}^n. And second, if the fif_i's have sufficiently high strength then Z(K)Z(K) is in fact Zariski dense in ZZ. 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.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2406.18498,
  title  = {Two improvements in Birch's theorem on forms},
  author = {Amichai Lampert and Andrew Snowden},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2406.18498},
  year   = {2024}
}

Comments

16 pages

R2 v1 2026-06-28T17:20:11.434Z