Quantitative Oppenheim conjecture for \(S\)-arithmetic quadratic forms of rank \(3\) and \(4 \) (Q2030053)

Let \( q \) be an indefinite non-degenerate quadratic form on \( \mathbb{R}^{n} \) ie. \( q(x)=x^{t}Ax \) (\( A=A^{t}\in \mathbb{R}^{n\times n} \), \( \det(A)\ne 0 \)) for all \( x\in \mathbb{R}^{n} \) and \( q(y)=0 \) for some \( 0\ne y \in \mathbb{R}^{n} \). The quadratic form \( q \) is called rational if \( q(x)=cx^{t}\tilde{A}x \) for some non-zero real number \( c \) and \( \tilde{A} \in \mathbb{Q}^{n\times n}\), and \textit{irrational} otherwise. The Oppenheim conjecture states that if \( q \) is an indefinite non-degenerate irrational quadratic form with \( n\ge 3 \) variables, then for given \( \varepsilon >0 \), there exists \( 0\ne x\in \mathbb{Z}^{n} \) such that \( |q(x)|<\varepsilon \) [\textit{A. Oppenheim}, Ann. Math. (2) 32, 271--298 (1931; JFM 57.0193.05)]. Let \( S=\{\infty, p_1,p_2, \ldots,p_s\} \) (\( p_1, p_2, \ldots,p_s\) are odd primes). For each \( p\in S \) denote by \( \mathbb{Q}_p \) the completion field of \( \mathbb{Q} \). Write \( \mathbb{Q}_S = \prod_{p\in S} \mathbb{Q}_p \). An \( S \)-quadratic form \( \mathtt{q}_S \) is an \( S \)-tuple of quadratic forms \( q_p \) defined over \( \mathbb{Q}_p \) and \( \mathtt{q}_S \) is called \textit{isotropic} if \( q_p \) is isotropic for all \( p\in S \). Let \( \mathtt{\Omega} \), \( \mathtt{I}_S \) and \( \mathtt{T}=\prod_{p\in S}T_p \) be the \( S \)-tuples of convex sets, \( p \)-adic intervals and radius parameters respectively (see [\textit{ibid.}] for the precise definitions). The author studied the number \( N(\mathtt{T}) = N(\mathtt{q}_S,\mathtt{I}_S, \mathtt{\Omega})(\mathtt{T})\) of elements \( \mathtt{v} \) of the set \[ \{mp_1^{n_1}\cdots p_s^{n_s} \ : \ m,n_1,\ldots, n_s\in \mathbb{Z}\}^{n} \cap \mathtt{T\Omega} \] such that \( \mathtt{q}_S(\mathtt{v})\in \mathtt{I}_S \). Using the ergodic theory, the author proved (Theorem 1.1) that for almost all isotropic quadratic forms \( \mathtt{q}_S \) of rank \( 3 \) or \( 4 \), as \( \mathtt{T}\rightarrow \infty \) (ie. \( T_p \rightarrow \infty\) for all \( p\in S \)), \[ N(\mathtt{q}_S,\mathtt{I}_S, \mathtt{\Omega})(\mathtt{T}) \sim \lambda_{\mathtt{q}_S, \mathtt{\Omega}} \mu(\mathtt{I}_S)|\mathtt{T}|^{\mathrm{rank}(\mathtt{q}_S)}, \] where \( \lambda_{\mathtt{q}_S, \mathtt{\Omega}} \) is a constant depending on the quadratic form \( \mathtt{q}_S \) and the convex set \( \mathtt{\Omega} \).