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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 November 2018
A well known theorem of Hasse [1] says that every quadratic form in at least 5 variables over the field Q p of p-adic numbers has a nontrivial zero. This fact has led Artin to make the conjecture
(C): "Every form over Q p of degree d in n > d 2 variables has a non-trivial zero." However, a counterexample has been provided by Terjanian [2] in the case d=4.
The case d=2 is distinguished by the fact that every quadratic form may be "diagonalized", i.e., assumed to be of the type Σ a i X 2 i . One is therefore led to the weaker conjecture
(C): "Every form f=Σ a i X d i over Q p in n > d 2 variables has a nontrivial zero in Q p,"
which still generalizes Hasse's theorem.