A quasi-paucity problem (Q1396325)

Let \(f_1(x),\dots, f_t(x)\) be integer polynomials and consider the system of Diophantine equations \[ \sum_{i=1}^s f_j(x_i)= \sum_{i=1}^s f_j(y_i) \quad (1\leq j\leq t) \] to be solved in integers \(x_i,y_i\in [1,P]\). Let \(N_s(P)\) be the number of such solutions. Clearly there are trivial solutions in which the \(x_i\) are a permutation of the \(y_i\). These number \(s!P^s+ O(P^{s-1})\). A ``paucity'' estimate would say that \(N_s(P)\sim s!P^s\) as \(P\to\infty\), and a ``quasi-paucity'' estimate that \(N_s(P)\) is essentially of order \(P^s\). The present paper establishes a quasi-paucity estimate when \(s=t+1\). Specifically it is shown that \[ N_{t+1}(P)\ll P^{t+1} (\log P)^A \] for some constant \(A\), providing that \(\{1, f_1(t), f_2(t),\dots, f_t(x)\}\) are linearly independent over \(\mathbb{Q}\).