Rational points in a family of conics over ${\mathbb{F}}_2(t)$

Abstract

Serre famously showed that almost all plane conics over $\mathbb{Q}$ have no rational point. We investigate versions of this over global function fields, focusing on a specific family of conics over ${\mathbb{F}}_2(t)$ which illustrates new behaviour. We obtain an asymptotic formula using harmonic analysis, which requires a Tauberian theorem over function fields for Dirichlet series with branch point singularities.

19 pages