Further improvements to the Chevalley-Warning theorems (Q6156903)

The Chevalley-Warning theorem is a famous result in algebra, especially, in the study of finding solutions of polynomial equations over finite fields. In this article, the authors study some improvements to the results provided by \textit{D. R. Heath-Brown} [Russ. Math. Surv. 66, No. 2, 427--435 (2011; Zbl 1247.11089)] on Chevalley-Warning theorem. Let \(\mathbb{F}_{q}\) denote the finite field of order \(q = p^{k}\), where \(p\) is a prime and \(k \in \mathbb{Z}>0\). We write \(\mathbf{f} = {f_{1}, \dots, f_{r}}\) to denote a system of polynomials in \(\mathbb{F}_{q}[x_{1}, \dots, x_{n}]\). Let \(d_{i} = deg(f_{i})\) for \(1 \leq i \leq r\). We define the degree of \(f\) to be \(d := d_{1} + \dots + d_{r}\). Let \(Z(\mathbf{f}, \mathbb{F}_{q}^{n} )\) be the set of zeros of \(f\) over \(\mathbb{F}_q\) and let \(N(\mathbf{f}, \mathbb{F}_{q}^{n} ) = |Z(\mathbf{f}, \mathbb{F}_{q}^{n} )|\). An \textit{affine space} is a coset of a subspace. We say that two affine spaces are parallel if they are cosets of the same subspace. The dimension of an affine space is the dimension of the corresponding subspace. We let \(A^{t}(\mathbb{F}_{q})\) denote any affine space of dimension \(t\) over \(\mathbb{F}_{q}\). The main results of the article are as follows: Theorem (Heath-Brown). Suppose that \(n > d\), \(Z(f, \mathbb{F}_{q}^{n} )\) is non-empty, and \(Z(f, \mathbb{F}_{q}^{n} )\) is not an affine space of \(\mathbb{F}_{q}^{n}\). Then the following statements hold. (1) For any \(q, N(\mathbf{f}, \mathbb{F}_{q}^{n} ) \geq q^{n-d} \). (2) For \(q \geq 4, N(\mathbf{f}, \mathbb{F}_{q}^{n} ) \geq 2q^{n-d}\). (3) For any \(q \geq 2, N(\mathbf{f}, \mathbb{F}_{q}^{n} ) >\frac{q^{n+1-d}}{n+2-d}\) provided that the polynomials \(f_{1}, \dots, f_{r}\) are homogeneous. Theorem. Suppose that \(n > d\), \(Z(f, \mathbb{F}_{q}^{n} )\) is non-empty, and \(Z(f, \mathbb{F}_{q}^{n} )\) is not an affine space of \(\mathbb{F}_{q}^{n}\). Then the following statements hold. (1) For \(q = 2, N(\mathbf{f}, \mathbb{F}_{2}^{n} ) \geq 2^{n-d }+ 2\). (2) For \(q \geq 3, N(\mathbf{f}, \mathbb{F}_{q}^{n} ) \geq 2q^{n-d}\). (3) For \(q \geq 2, N(\mathbf{f}, \mathbb{F}_{q}^{n} ) >\frac{q^{n+1-d} - 1}{q - 1}\cdot \frac{q}{n + 2 - d}\) provided that the polynomials \(f_{1}, \dots, f_{r}\) are homogeneous. (4) For \(q \geq3, N(\mathbf{f}, \mathbb{F}_{q}^{n} ) \geq 2q^{n-d} + (q - 2)q\) provided that the polynomials \(f_{1}, \dots, f_{r}\) are homogeneous. Several authors have already contributed many improvements to the Chevalley-Warning theorem over finite fields. So it looks like the Chevalley-Warning theorem has a diminishing chance of further extensions over finite fields.