The distribution of rational points for a class of quartic hypersurfaces (Q2122575)

Asymptotic formulae for numbers of rational points of bounded height on algebraic varieties make up an active topic of research and provide a rich interplay between algebraic geometry and analytic number theory. This paper provides a welcome addition to the existing literature by studying the quantitative arithmetic of the projective quartic hypersurface \(Q_n\) in \(\mathbb{P}^{n+1}_\mathbb{Q}\) defined by \[ x^4=(y_1^2+\cdots+y_n^2)z^2 \] where \(n\) is a positive multiple of \(4\), and \((x:y_1:\cdots:y_n:z)\) are homogeneous coordinates in \(\mathbb{P}^{n+1}\). The distribution of rational points on non-singular quartic hypersurfaces of sufficiently large dimension has been studied in seminal work of Birch, but the high dimension of the singular locus of \(Q_n\) prevents Birch's methods from being applicable to the problem at hand. In fact, just from the observation that \(Q_n\) contains the subspace of \(\mathbb{P}^{n+1}\) given by \(x=z=0\), it is easy to see that \(Q_n\) contains too many rational points for Birch's theorem to hold for this hypersurface. The main result in the paper is an asymptotic formula for the number of points of height bounded by \(B\) in the open set of \(Q_n\) defined by \(xz\neq0\). The expression takes the form \[ C_n B\log B\left(1+O_n\left(\frac{1}{\sqrt{\log B}}\right)\right) \] where the constant \(C_n\) is described in more detail in the paper, and the height function is given by \[ H(x:y_1:\cdots:y_n:z)=\max\left\{|x|,\sqrt{y_1^2+\cdots+y_n^2},|z|\right\}^{\frac{1}{n-1}} \] where the coordinates are chosen to be coprime integers. The author follows a strategy inspired by the paper by \textit{J. Liu} et al. [Int. Math. Res. Not. 2019, No. 7, 2008--2043 (2019; Zbl 1451.11021)], where the authors study the similar problem of counting rational points on the cubic hypersurface in \(\mathbb{P}^{n+1}\) defined by \(x^3=(y_1^2+\cdots+y_n^2)z\). The idea is to count solutions to \(x^4=wz^2\) weighted by the number \(r_n(w)\) of representations of \(w\) as a sum of \(n\) squares, and then to take advantage of the availability of good asymptotic formulae for \(r_n(w)\) in terms of divisor sums when \(n\) is a multiple of \(4\). In this way one is reduced to understanding the asymptotic behaviour of the sums \[ S(x,y)=\sum_{m\leq x}\sum_{\substack{d\mid m^4\\ d\leq y}}r_{4k}^\ast(d)\mathbf{1}_\square\left(\frac{m^4}{d}\right) \] where \(r_{4k}^\ast(d)\) is the main term of the asymptotic formula for \(r_{4k}(d)\) and \(\mathbf{1}_{\square}\) is the characteristic function of squares. This is done by resorting to a classical method from the toolbox of Analytic Number Theory, which essentially relates the asymptotic growth of partial sums of arithmetic functions to the complex analytic properties of the corresponding Dirichlet series. In this case the presence of the two truncation conditions \(m\leq x\) and \(d\leq y\) leads to the introduction of a double Dirichlet series \[ \mathcal{F}(s,w)=\sum_{m=1}^\infty\frac{1}{m^s}\sum_{d\mid m^4}\frac{r_{4k}^\ast(d)\mathbf{1}_\square\left(\frac{m^4}{d}\right)}{d^w}. \] This is compared, via its Euler product expansion in the region of absolute convergence, to a certain product of translates of the Riemann \(\zeta\)-function, which then enables the desired asymptotic formula for \(S(x,y)\) to be obtained via Mellin integrals. A technical difficulty comes from the fact that these Mellin integrals do not evaluate \(S\) directly, but rather some partial integral of it, and therefore some differentiation process is needed to estimate \(S\) itself. One of the main driving forces of research in the area is a set of conjectures by Manin which predict the distribution of rational points on certain classes of varieties in terms of geometric invariants. The author mentions that the result is interesting in the context of Manin's conjectures, although whether it matches Manin's prediction is not discussed or shown. This is done in more detail in Liu, Wu and Zhao's paper for the cubic hypersurface presented above.