Quadratic forms The
Hasse–Minkowski theorem states that the local–global principle holds for the problem of
representing 0 by
quadratic forms over the
rational numbers (which is
Minkowski's result); and more generally over any
number field (as proved by Hasse), when one uses all the appropriate
local field necessary conditions.
Hasse's theorem on cyclic extensions states that the local–global principle applies to the condition of being a relative norm for a
cyclic extension of number fields.
Cubic forms A counterexample by
Ernst S. Selmer shows that the Hasse–Minkowski theorem cannot be extended to forms of degree 3: The cubic equation 3
x3 + 4
y3 + 5
z3 = 0 has a solution in real numbers, and in all p-adic fields, but it has no nontrivial solution in which
x,
y, and
z are all rational numbers.
Roger Heath-Brown showed that every cubic form over the integers in at least 14 variables represents 0, improving on earlier results of
Davenport. Since every cubic form over the p-adic numbers with at least ten variables represents 0, thus trivially establishing the Hasse principle for this class of forms. It is known that Heath-Brown's result is best possible in the sense that there exist non-singular cubic forms over the rationals in 9 variables that do not represent zero. However,
Hooley showed that the Hasse principle holds for the representation of 0 by non-singular cubic forms over the rational numbers in at least nine variables. Davenport, Heath-Brown and Hooley all used the
Hardy–Littlewood circle method in their proofs. According to an idea of
Manin, the obstructions to the Hasse principle holding for cubic forms can be tied into the theory of the
Brauer group; this is the
Brauer–Manin obstruction, which accounts completely for the failure of the Hasse principle for some classes of variety. However,
Skorobogatov has shown that the Brauer–Manin obstruction cannot explain all the failures of the Hasse principle.
Forms of higher degree Counterexamples by
Fujiwara and
Sudo show that the Hasse–Minkowski theorem is not extensible to forms of degree 10
n + 5, where
n is a non-negative integer. On the other hand,
Birch's theorem shows that if
d is any odd natural number, then there is a number
N(
d) such that any form of degree
d in more than
N(
d) variables represents 0: the Hasse principle holds trivially. ==Albert–Brauer–Hasse–Noether theorem==