Counting rational points on smooth cyclic covers

A conjecture of Serre concerns the number of rational points of bounded height on a finite cover of projective space Pn-1. In this paper, we achieve Serre's conjecture in the special case of smooth cyclic covers of any degree when n≥ 10, and surpass it for covers of degree r≥ 3 when n> 10. This is achieved by a new bound for the number of perfect r-th power values of a polynomial with nonsingular leading form, obtained via a combination of an r-th power sieve and the q-analogue of van der Corput's method. © 2012 Elsevier Inc.

Duke Scholars

Author Lillian Beatrix Pierce Mathematics