In this paper we investigate the quantity of diagonal quartic surfaces $a_0 X_0^4 + a_1 X_1^4 + a_2 X_2^4 +a_3 X_3^4 = 0$ which have a Brauer–Manin obstruction to the Hasse principle. We are able to find an asymptotic formula for the quantity of such surfaces ordered by height. The proof uses a generalization of a method of Heath-Brown on sums over linked variables. We also show that there exists no uniform formula for a generic generator in this family.

Colmez [Périodes des variétés abéliennes a multiplication complexe, Ann. of Math. (2)138(3) (1993), 625–683; available at http://www.math.jussieu.fr/∼colmez] conjectured a product formula for periods of abelian varieties over number fields with complex multiplication and proved it in some cases. His conjecture is equivalent to a formula for the Faltings height of CM abelian varieties in terms of the logarithmic derivatives at $s=0$ of certain Artin $L$-functions. In a series of articles we investigate the analog of Colmez’s theory in the arithmetic of function fields. There abelian varieties are replaced by Drinfeld modules and their higher-dimensional generalizations, so-called $A$-motives. In the present article we prove the product formula for the Carlitz module and we compute the valuations of the periods of a CM $A$-motive at all finite places in terms of Artin $L$-series. The latter is achieved by investigating the local shtukas associated with the $A$-motive.