Pairs of additive equations II. Large odd degree

Let k be an odd positive integer. Davenport and Lewis have shown that the equations

$\text{a}{}_1\text{x}{}_1{}^{\mathrm{k}}\text{+…+a}{}_{\mathrm{n}}\text{x}{}_{\mathrm{n}}{}^{\mathrm{k}}\text{=0}$

with integer coefficients, have a nontrivial solution in integers x₁,…, x_N provided that

$\text{N?36klog6k]}$

Here it is shown that for any ? > 0 and k > k₀(?) the equations have a nontrivial solution provided that

$\text{N?}\text{8}\text{log 2}\text{+?}\text{k log k.}$