Erdős considered the second moment of the gap-counting function of prime divisors in 1946 and proved an upper bound that is not of the right order of magnitude. We prove asymptotics for all moments. Furthermore, we prove a generalisation stating that the gaps between primes p for which there is no $\mathbb{Q}_p$ -point on a random variety are Poisson distributed.

Let p be a rational prime number. We refine Brauer‘s elementary diagonalisation argument to show that any system of r homogeneous polynomials of degree d, with rational coefficients, possesses a non-trivial p-adic solution provided only that the number of variables in this system exceeds $(rd^2)^2^(d-1)$. This conclusion improves on earlier results of Leep and Schmidt, and of Schmidt. The methods extend to provide analogous conclusions in field extensions of Q, and in purely imaginary extensions of Q. We also discuss lower bounds for the number of variables required to guarantee local solubility.