The Bombieri-Pila determinant method (Q6937284)

The paper under review gives a ``concise and accessible introduction'' to the classical theorem in Diophantine approximation of Bombieri and Pila, counting the number of integral solutions to a Diophantine equation in two variables. Specifically, they prove the following theorem of Bombieri and Pila:\N\NTheorem: Let \(F\in\mathbb{R}[x,y]\) be an irreducible polynomial of degree \(d\geq 2\). If \(N\) is sufficiently large, depending only on \(d\), then the cardinality of the set \N\[\N\{(x,y)\in\{1,\ldots,N\}^2\mid F(x,y)=0\}\N\]\Nis at most \N\[\N(\log N)^{O(d)}N^{1/d}\N\]\NThe key technique of the proof is the real analytic determinant method which has been generalized and used to great effect over the last few decades. The authors also give an application to counting integral points on convex curves.