On Artin's conjecture for pairs of diagonal forms

Abstract

Let $p$ be an odd prime and $d = p^{\tau}(p-1)$. In the spirit of Aritn's conjecture, consider the system of two diagonal forms of degree $d$ in $s$ variables given by \begin{equation*}\begin{split} a_1x_1^d + \cdots + a_sx_s^d = 0\\ b_1x_1^d + \cdots + b_sx_s^d = 0 \end{split} \end{equation*} with $a_i, b_i \in \mathbb{Q}_p$. For $s > 2 \frac{p}{p-1}d^2 - 2d$, this paper shows that this system has a non-trivial $p$-adic solution for every $\tau \ge 3, p \ge 7$, and for every $\tau = 2, p \ge \frac{C}{2}+4$, where $C \le 9996$. Moreover, for $s > (2\frac{p}{p-1} + \frac{C-3}{2p-2})d^2 - 2d$, this system will have a non-trivial $p$-adic solution for every $\tau = 1, p \ge 5$.