Rational points and prime values of polynomials in moderately many variables (Q2331563)

Let \(n\in\mathbb{N},\;f(\mathbf{t})\in\mathbb{Z}[\mathbf{t}],\;\mathbf{t}:=(t_{1}, \dots, t_{n})\); denote by \(d\) the degree of \(f(\mathbf{t})\), by \(f_{0}(\mathbf{t})\) the degree \(d\) part of \(f(\mathbf{t})\), and by \(\sigma (f)\) the dimension of the affine variety defined by the system of equations: \[ f_{0}(\mathbf{t})=0,\;\bigtriangledown f_{0}(\mathbf{t})=0. \] Assuming \(f(\mathbf{t})\) be irreducible in \(\mathbb{Q}[\mathbf{t}]\) and \[ n - \sigma (f)\geq \max \{4,\;1+2^{d-1}(d-1)\}, \tag{1} \] the authors obtain, by the circle method, an asymptotic formula for the number \[ \text{card}\;(f(\mathbb{Z}^{n}\cap T\mathcal{B})\cap\mathbb{P}),\;T\rightarrow\infty, \] where \(\mathcal{B}\) be a non-empty compact box in \(\mathbb{R}^{n}\) with \( f_{0}(\mathcal{B})\subseteq (0,\infty)\) and \(\mathbb{P}\) stands for the set of primes. For \(r\in\mathbb{N},\; 1\leq i\leq r\), let \(K_{i}\;|\mathbb{Q}\) be a cyclic extension of \(\mathbb{Q}\) of degree \(d_{i}\) and \[ F_{i}(\mathbf{x}_{i}):=N_{K_{i}(\mathbf{x}_{i})/\mathbb{Q}(\mathbf{x}_{i})}(\sum_{j=1}^{d_{i}}x_{i,j}\omega_{i,j}) \] be the norm-form corresponding to a basis \(\{\omega_{i,j}\;|1\leq j\leq d_{i}\}\) of that extension. Assuming \(f(\mathbf{t})\) be a homogeneous polynomial irreducible in \(\mathbb{Q}[\mathbf{t}]\) and satisfying relation \((1)\), the authors prove that the quasi-affine variety \[ X: f(\mathbf{t})\neq 0,\;f(\mathbf{t})=F_{i}(\mathbf{x}_{i})\;\text{ for }\;1\leq i\leq r \] satisfies the Hasse principle and weak approximation. The main ingredient of the proof of this theorem is the authors' asymptotic formula for the number of prime values of polynomials mentioned above. Applying the circle method again, the authors obtain an asymptotic formula for the number of square-free values of a polynomial \(f(\mathbf{t})\) in a large box, assuming only that \(f(\mathbf{t})\) is a square-free element of the ring \(\mathbb{Q}[\mathbf{t}]\) and satisfies the inequality \[ n - \sigma (f)\geq\max \{1,\;3^{-1}2^{d}(d-1)\}. \]