Let 1 < k < 33/29. We prove that if λ₁, λ₂ and λ₃ are non-zero real numbers, not all of the same sign and such that λ₁/λ₂ is irrational, and ϖ is any real number, then for any ε > 0 the inequality $|\lambda ₁p₁+\lambda ₂p²₂+\lambda ₃p{₃}^k+\varpi |\le {\left(ma{x}_j{p}_j\right)}^{-(33-29k)/\left(72k\right)+\epsilon }$ has infinitely many solutions in prime variables p₁, p₂, p₃.

We prove that almost all positive even integers $n$ can be represented as $p_2^2+p_3^3+p_4^4+p_5^5$ with $|p_k^k-\frac{1}{4}N|\le N^{1-1/54+\epsilon }$ for $2\le k\le 5$. As a consequence, we show that each sufficiently large odd integer $N$ can be written as $p_1+p_2^2+p_3^3+p_4^4+p_5^5$ with $|p_k^k-\frac{1}{5}N|\le N^{1-1/54+\epsilon }$ for $1\le k\le 5$.

Let ${}_q\left[t\right]$ be the polynomial ring over the finite field ${}_q$, and let ${}_N$ be the subset of ${}_q\left[t\right]$ containing all polynomials of degree strictly less than N. Define D(N) to be the maximal cardinality of a set $A{\subseteq }_N$ for which A-A contains no squares of polynomials. By combining the polynomial Hardy-Littlewood circle method with the density increment technology developed by Pintz, Steiger and Szemerédi, we prove that $D\left(N\right)\ll q^N{\left(logN\right)}^7/N$.