On a conjecture of Watson

Abstract

Let Qn be a real indefinite quadratic form in n variables x1, x2,…, xn, of determinant D ≠ 0 and of type (r, s), 0 < r < n, n = r + s. Let σ denote the signature of Qn so that σ = r − s. It is known (see e.g. Blaney(4)) that, given any real numbers c1 c2, …, cn, there exists a constant C depending upon n and σ only such that the inequalityhas a solution in integers x1, x2, …, xn. Let Cr, s denote the infimum of all such constants. Clearly Cr, s = Cs, r, so we need consider non-negative signatures only. For n = 2, C1, 1 = ¼ follows from a classical result of Minkowski on the product of two linear forms. When n = 3, Davenport (5) proved that C2, 1 = 27/100. For all n and σ = 0, Birch (3) proved that Cr, r = ¼. In 1962, Watson(18) determined the values of Cr, s for all n ≥ 21 and for all signatures σ. He proved thatWatson also conjectured that (1·2) holds for all n ≥ 4. Dumir(6) proved Watson's conjecture for n = 4. For n = 5, it was proved by Hans-Gill and Madhu Raka(7, 8). The author (12) has proved the conjecture for σ = 1 and all n. In the preceding paper (13) we proved that C5, 1 = 1. In this paper we prove Watson's conjecture for σ = 2, 3 and 4.