On the number of Diophantine \(m\)-tuples in finite fields (Q6099004)

Let \( q \) be an odd prime power and let \( \mathbb{F}_q \) be the finite field of \( q \) elements. For \( r\in \mathbb{F}_q^{*} \), we say that an \( m \)-tuple \( (a_1,\ldots, a_m)\in \mathbb{F}_q^{m} \) for a Diophantine \( m \)-tuple in \( \mathbb{F}_q \) with a shift \( r \) if all \( m(m-1)/2 \) shifted products \( a_ia_j+r \) are perfect squares in \( \mathbb{F}_q \). Let \( N_r(m,q) \) be the number of distinct Diophantine \( m \)-tuples in \( \mathbb{F}_q \) with shift \( r \). In the paper under review, the author uses a new argument to improve the error term in the asymptotic formula for \( N_r(m,q)\), which is due to \textit{A. Dujella} and \textit{M. Kazalicki} in [Res. Number Theory 7, No. 1, Paper No. 3, 24 p. (2021; Zbl 1459.11095)] and \textit{N. Mani} and \textit{S. Rubinstein-Salzedo} in [Acta Arith. 197, No. 4, 331--351 (2021; Zbl 1465.11089)]. More precisely, the author proves the following theorem, which is the main result in the paper. Theorem. For a fixed \( m\ge 4 \), uniformly over \( r\in \mathbb{F}_q^{*} \), we have \begin{align*} N_r(m,q)=2^{-m(m-1)/2}q^{m}+O(q^{m-1}), \end{align*} where the implied constant may depend on \( m \).