Diophantine equations in primes: density of prime points on affine hypersurfaces

Abstract

Let $F \in \mathbb{Z}[x_1, \ldots, x_n]$ be a homogeneous form of degree $d \geq 2$, and let $V_F^*$ denote the singular locus of the affine variety $V(F) = \{ \mathbf{z} \in {\mathbb{C}}^n: F(\mathbf{z}) = 0 \}$. In this paper, we prove the existence of integer solutions with prime coordinates to the equation $F(x_1, \ldots, x_n) = 0$ provided $F$ satisfies suitable local conditions and $n - \dim V_F^* \geq 2^8 3^4 5^2 d^3 (2d-1)^2 4^{d}$. Our result improves on what was known previously due to Cook and Magyar (B. Cook and A. Magyar, `Diophantine equations in the primes'. Invent. Math. 198 (2014), 701-737), which required $n - \dim V_F^*$ to be an exponential tower in $d$.