For which real quadratic fields is Kim's octonary form universal?
Abstract
Let with squarefree, and let be the totally positive fundamental unit of . B. M. Kim proved in 2000 that the octonary diagonal form is universal over whenever is squarefree. We complete Kim's result to an if-and-only-if classification: is universal if and only if for some , or for some odd , in both cases subject to squarefreeness. The second family appears to be new in this context and contains at as a degenerate boundary case, recovering Maa{\ss}'s classical exceptional three-square phenomenon. Equivalently, is universal over if and only if the Blomer--Kala invariant equals ; for the two stated families we have , so the Blomer--Kala universal -variable construction specializes exactly to . The converse leverages a continued-fraction involution together with a closed formula in convergent coordinates, a three-consecutive-square-values lemma for primitive quadratic polynomials of positive fundamental discriminant, and an even-root exclusion lemma derived from complete-quotient norm bounds.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2606.29321,
title = {For which real quadratic fields is Kim's octonary form universal?},
author = {Scott Duke Kominers},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2606.29321},
year = {2026}
}
Comments
20 pages