Efficient congruencing in ellipsephic sets: the general case

Abstract

In this paper, we bound the number of solutions to a general Vinogradov system of equations $x_1^j+\dots+x_s^j=y_1^j+\dots+y_s^j$, $(1\leq j\leq k)$, as well as other related systems, in which the variables are required to satisfy digital restrictions in a given base. Specifically, our sets of permitted digits have the property that there are few representations of a natural number as sums of elements of the digit set -- the set of squares serving as a key example. We obtain better bounds using this additive structure than could be deduced purely from the size of the set of variables. In particular, when the digits are required to be squares, we obtain diagonal behaviour with $2k(k+1)$ variables.