On the number of linear spaces on hypersurfaces with a prescribed discriminant (Q1668432)

This article is motivated by the problem of counting rational linear subspaces that lie on hypersurfaces defined over the rational numbers of some bounded height. More precisely, let \(F\in \mathbb{Z}[x_1,\ldots, x_s]\) be a homogeneous polynomial of degree \(d\) and let \(\mathbf{x}_1,\ldots, \mathbf{x}_m \in \mathbb{Z}^s\) be integer valued vectors. Then, one may ask when the linear subspace generated by these \(m\) vectors is contained in the hypersurface given by \(F=0\). For a parameter \(P>1\) and \(b\in \mathbb{N}\), the author defines the counting function \(N_m(P;b)\) which counts the number of integer vectors \(\mathbf{x}_1,\ldots, \mathbf{x}_m \in \mathbb{Z}^s\) with \(|x_{ij}|\leq P\), \(1\leq i\leq m\), \(1\leq j\leq s\) such that \[ F(t_1\mathbf{x}_1+\ldots + t_m \mathbf{x}_m)=0 \] holds identically in \(t_1,\ldots, t_m\) and \[ \det ((\mathbf{x}_1,\ldots, \mathbf{x}_m)^t (\mathbf{x}_1,\ldots, \mathbf{x}_m))=b. \] As an example, one can interpret these as generators of linear subspaces contained in the hypersurface \(F=0\) with a given lattice discriminant. The main result of the article under review is an asymptotic formula for \(N_m(P;b)\) assuming that \(s\) is sufficiently large in terms of \(m\), \(d\) and the dimension of the singular locus of the hypersurface \(F=0\) and assuming \(d \neq 2m\) and \(m,d\geq 2\).\par In an earlier [Proc. Lond. Math. Soc. (3) 108, No. 4, 809--835 (2014; Zbl 1372.11047)], the author established asymptotic formulas for analogous counting problems where one has no restriction on the lattice discriminant but only the maximal size of each of the vectors \(\mathbf{x}_1,\dots, \mathbf{x}_m\) is bounded. The proof proceeds via an application of the Hardy-Littlewood circle method as well as ideas developed in earlier work of Brandes [loc. cit.]. Note that the Diophantine conditions appearing in the definition of the counting function \(N_m(P;b)\) are in general of different degrees, a situation that has been in a general context been explored by \textit{T. Browning} and \textit{R. Heath-Brown} [J. Eur. Math. Soc. (JEMS) 19, No. 2, 357--394 (2017; Zbl 1383.11039)].