Square values of several polynomials over a finite field

Abstract

Let $f_1,\dots,f_m$ be polynomials in $n$ variables with coefficients in a finite field $\mathbb{F}_q$. We estimate the number of points $\underline{x}$ in $\mathbb{F}_q^n$ such that each value $f_i(\underline{x})$ is a nonzero square in $\mathbb{F}_q$. The error term is especially small when the $f_i$ define smooth projective quadrics with nonsingular intersections. We improve the error term in a recent work by Asgarli--Yip on mutual position of smooth quadrics.