English

Extended Lagrange's four-square theorem

Number Theory 2018-05-14 v1

Abstract

Lagrange's four-square theorem states that every natural number nn can be represented as the sum of four integer squares: n=x12+x22+x32+x42n=x_1^2+x_2^2+x_3^2+x_4^2. Ramanujan generalized Lagrange's result by providing, up to equivalence, all 5454 quadratic forms ax12+bx22+cx32+dx42ax_1^2+bx_2^2+cx_3^2+dx_4^2 that represent all positive integers. In this article, we prove the following extension of Lagrange's theorem: given a prime number pp and v1Z4v_1\in Z^4, \dots, vkZ4v_k\in Z^4, 1k31\leq k\leq 3, such that vi2=p\|v_i\|^2=p for all 1ik1\leq i\leq k and vivj=0\langle v_i|v_j\rangle=0 for all 1i<jk1\leq i<j\leq k, then there exists v=(x1,x2,x3,x4)Z4v=(x_1,x_2,x_3,x_4)\in Z^4 such that viv=0\langle v_i|v\rangle=0 for all 1ik1\leq i\leq k and v2=x12+x22+x32+x42=p \|v\|^2=x_1^2+x_2^2+x_3^2+x_4^2=p This means that, in Z4Z^4, any system of orthogonal vectors of norm pp can be completed to a base. We conjecture that the result holds for every norm p1p\geq 1. The problem comes up from the study of a discrete quantum computing model in which the qubits have Gaussian integers as coordinates, except for a normalization factor 2k\sqrt{2^{-k}}.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1805.04353,
  title  = {Extended Lagrange's four-square theorem},
  author = {Jesús Lacalle and Laura N. Gatti},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1805.04353},
  year   = {2018}
}

Comments

15 pages

R2 v1 2026-06-23T01:51:55.955Z