On an Oppenheim-type conjecture for systems of quadratic forms (Q1885533)

Let \(Q({\mathbf x})\) be a real nondegenerate indefinite quadratic form in \(d\geq 5\) variables which is not proportional to a rational form. It was conjectured by Oppenheim that \(\forall\varepsilon>0\) \(\exists {\mathbf x}\in \mathbb{Z}^d-\{\mathbf{0}\}: | Q({\mathbf x})|< \varepsilon\). Margulis proved the conjecture in 1989 for \(d\geq 3\). It is also known that the result is not true for some indefinite forms in 2 variables. In this paper, similar results for systems of quadratic forms have been studied. Let \(Q_j\), \(j=1,\dots,t\) be nondegenerate quadratic forms in \(d\geq 3\) variables. Suppose that the intersection of the hypersurfaces \(\{Q_j=0\}\), \(j=1,\dots,t\) is not \(\{\mathbf{0}\}\) and at every point of intersection which is different from \textbf{0} the space spanned by the normal vectors to the hypersurfaces has dimension \((d-1)\). Then \[ \forall\varepsilon>0\;\exists {\mathbf x}\in \mathbb{Z}^d-\{\mathbf{0}\}:\max_{j=1, \dots,t}\bigl| Q_j({\mathbf x})\bigr| <\varepsilon \] iff the intersection of the hypersurfaces contains a vector \({\mathbf v}\in\mathbb{R}^d\) such that for some \(j=1,\dots,t\), \(v_j\neq 0\) and the vector \((v_i/v_j:i\neq j)\in\mathbb{R}^{d-1}\) is well approximable of order one. The case when hypersurfaces have a common tangent plane at a point of intersection has also been discussed. As a corollary results have been obtained on the set \(\Delta\) of \(g\in\text{GL}(d,\mathbb{R})\) such that the closure of the set \(\{(Q_1 (g{\mathbf x}),\dots, Q_t(g{\mathbf x})), \dots, Q_t(g{\mathbf x})): {\mathbf x}\in \mathbb{Z}^d-\{\mathbf{0}\}\}\) contains \((0,\dots,0)\). Special cases have been discussed where depending on the mutual position of the hypersurfaces \(\{Q_j=0\}\), \(j=1,\dots,t\) the set \(\Delta\) has full Haar measure or measure zero and Hausdorff dimension \(d^2-(d-2)/2\).