On Artin's Conjecture, I: Systems of Diagonal Forms

As a special case of a well-known conjecture of Artin, it isexpected that a system of R additive forms of degree k, say [formula] with integer coefficients a_ij, has a non-trivial solution inQ_p for all primes p whenever [formula] Here we adopt the convention that a solution of (1) is non-trivialif not all the x_i are 0. To date, this has been verified onlywhen R=1, by Davenport and Lewis [4], and for odd k when R=2,by Davenport and Lewis [7]. For larger values of R, and in particularwhen k is even, more severe conditions on N are required toassure the existence of p-adic solutions of (1) for all primesp. In another important contribution, Davenport and Lewis [6]showed that the conditions [formula] are sufficient. There have been a number of refinements of theseresults. Schmidt [13] obtained N>>R²k³ log k, and Low,Pitman and Wolff [10] improved the work of Davenport and Lewisby showing the weaker constraints [formula] to be sufficient for p-adic solubility of (1). A noticeable feature of these results is that for even k, onealways encounters a factor k³ log k, in spite of the expectedk² in (2). In this paper we show that one can reach the expectedorder of magnitude k². 1991 Mathematics Subject Classification11D72, 11D79.     

Prime paucity for sums of two squares

Almost all solutions of the diophantine equations , with all x_j prime numbers, are diagonal ones.This is established here in quantitative form.     

A Three Squares Theorem with almost Primes

As an application of the vector sieve and uniform estimateson the Fourier coefficients of cusp forms of half-integral weight,it is shown that any sufficiently large number n 3 (mod 24)with 5 n is expressible as a sum of three squares of integershaving at most 521 prime factors. 2000 Mathematics Subject Classification11P05, 11N36, 11N75, 11E25.     

On Waring's Problem for Cubes and Smooth Weyl Sums

Non-trivial estimates for fractional moments of smooth cubicWeyl sums are developed. Complemented by bounds for such sumsof use on both the major and minor arcs in a Hardy-Littlewooddissection, these estimates are applied to derive an upper boundfor the sth moment of the smooth cubic Weyl sum of the expectedorder of magnitude as soon as s> 7.691. Related argumentsdemonstrate that all large integers n are represented as thesum of eight cubes of natural numbers, all of whose prime divisorsare at most exp (c(log nlog log n)^1/2}, for a suitable positivenumber c. This conclusion improves a previous result of G. Harcosin which nine cubes are required. 1991 Mathematics Subject Classification:11P05, 11L15, 11P55.