The Hasse principle for pairs of diagonal cubic forms

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Publication:2482876



Abstract: By means of the Hardy-Littlewood method, we apply a new mean value theorem for exponential sums to confirm the truth, over the rational numbers, of the Hasse principle for pairs of diagonal cubic forms in thirteen or more variables.


This paper shows that if the coefficients \(a_i,b_i\) are arbitrary integers, and if \(s\geq 13\), the simultaneous equations \[ \sum^s_{i=1} a_ix_i^3=\sum^s_{i=1} b_ix_i^3=0 \] will have a nontrivial integer solution if and only if they have a nontrivial solution in each \(p\)-adic field. In fact this latter condition holds automatically unless \(p=7\). The bound on \(s\) has been successively reduced by various authors, beginning with \textit{H. Davenport} and \textit{D. J. Lewis} [Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Lond., Ser. A 261, 97--136 (1966; Zbl 0227.10038)], who showed that \(s\geq 18\) sufficed. The result includes the Hasse Principle for a single diagonal form in 7 variables as a very special case. Indeed any improvement of the present result to systems in 12 variables would imply the Hasse Principle for a single form in 6 variables -- a result apparently well outside our current capabilities. The first key ingredient in the proof is the second author's estimate [Invent. Math. 122, 421--451 (1995; Zbl 0851.11055)] \[ \int^1_0| h(\alpha)|^6\,d\alpha\ll P^{3+1/4-\delta}, \] where the cubic Weyl sum \[ h(\alpha)=\sum_ne(\alpha n^3) \] is restricted to suitably smooth \(n\leq P\). This is used in establishing a mixed 12-th power moment estimate \[ \int^1_0\int^1_0| h(a\alpha)|^5| h(b \beta)|^5| h(c\alpha+ d\beta)|^2\,d\alpha\, d\beta\ll P^{6+1/4 -\delta}, \] valid for any non-zero integers \(a,b,c,d\). This is then used, via Hölder's inequality, to handle the minor arcs in the two-dimensional circle method. The proof of the mixed 12-th power moment estimate is the most novel part of the argument, and is accomplished using ``slim exceptional set technology, as developed in the authors' paper with \textit{T. Kawada} [Ann. Sci. École Norm. Sup. 34, No. 4, 471--501 (2001; Zbl 1020.11062)], for example.











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