On the value distribution of positive definite quadratic forms

Denote by 0 = λ ₀ < λ ₁ ≤ λ ₂ ≤ . . . the infinite sequence given by the values of a positive definite irrational quadratic form in k variables at integer points. For l ≥ 2 and an (l ?1)-dimensional interval I = I ₂×. . .×I _l we consider the l-level correlation function \({K^{(l)}_I(R)}\) which counts the number of tuples (i ₁, . . . , i _l ) such that \({\lambda_{i_1},\ldots,\lambda_{i_l}\leq R^2}\) and \({\lambda_{i_{j}}-\lambda_{i_{1}}\in I_j}\) for 2 ≤ j ≤ l. We study the asymptotic behavior of \({K^{(l)}_I(R)}\) as R tends to infinity. If k ≥ 4 we prove \({K^{(l)}_I(R)\sim c_l(Q)\,{\rm vol}(I)R^{lk-2(l-1)}}\) for arbitrary l, where c _l (Q) is an explicitly determined constant. This remains true for k = 3 under the restriction l ≤ 3.