An improvement to Chevalley's theorem with restricted variables (Q2422198)

\textit{C. Chevalley} [Abh. Math. Semin. Univ. Hamb. 11, 73--75 (1935; Zbl 0011.14504)] settled a conjecture of Artin that finite fields are quasi-algebraically closed. This was done by proving that a set of polynomials \(F_j(X_1,\ldots, X_n)\) without constant terms over a finite field \(\mathbb{F}_q\) has a nontrivial common zero \((a_1,\ldots, a_n)\in \mathbb{F}_q^n\) if the number of variables \(n\) exceeds the sum of total degrees. Many improvements of Chevalley's theorem have been given throughout the years. Recently, \textit{U. Schauz} [Electron. J. Comb. 15, No. 1, Research Paper R10, 35 p. (2008; Zbl 1172.13016)] and \textit{D. Brink} [Combinatorica 31, No. 1, 127--130 (2011; Zbl 1249.11057)] gave an extension of Chevalley's theorem to polynomials with variables belonging to arbitrary non-empty subsets of a finite field using Alon's Nullstellensatz. In this paper, the authors apply the ground field method to this result. The main result of the paper is given by the following theorem. Theorem. Let \(q=p^f\) and \(q'=p^e\) where \(e\mid f\). Consider polynomials \(F_1(X_1,\ldots, X_n)\), \(\ldots, F_t(X_1,\ldots, X_n)\) over a finite field \(\mathbb{F}_q\). Let \(A_{ih}\subset \mathbb{F}_{q'}\) for \(i=1, \ldots, n\) and \(h=1, \ldots , \frac{f}{e}\) and \[A_i=\left\{\sum_{h=1}^{f/e} a_{ih}\alpha_{h}\, |\, a_{ih}\in A_{ih}\,\,\text{and}\,\,\{\alpha_h\}\,\,\text{ is a basis of }\,\,\mathbb{F}_q \,\,\text{over} \,\,\mathbb{F}_{q'}\right\}\] for \(i=1, \ldots, n\). Suppose that \[\sum_{i=1}^{n}\displaystyle\sum_{h=1}^{f/e}\,(|A_{ih}|-1)\,> \displaystyle\frac{f(q^{\prime}-1)}{e}\displaystyle\sum_{j=1}^{t}\,w_{q^{\prime}}(F_j).\] Then the solution set \(V=\{{\mathbf a}\in \prod_{i=1}^{n} A_i \mid F_j({\mathbf a})=0\ \text{ for all } j\}\) with variables restricted to the \(A_i\)'s is not a singleton.