English

On biquadratic fields: when 5 squares are not enough

Number Theory 2026-05-19 v1

Abstract

In this paper we study the Pythagoras number P(OK)\mathcal{P}(\mathcal{O}_K) for the rings of integers in totally real biquadratic fields KK. We continue the work of Tinkov\'a towards proving the conjecture by Kr\'asensk\'y, Ra\v{s}ka and Sgallov\'a that a biquadratic KK satisfies P(OK)6\mathcal{P}(\mathcal{O}_K)\geq 6 if and only if it contains neither 2\sqrt{2} nor 5\sqrt{5}, with only finitely many exceptions. We fully solve two out of three remaining classes of fields by proving that all but finitely many KK containing 6\sqrt{6} or 7\sqrt{7} satisfy P(OK)6\mathcal{P}(\mathcal{O}_K)\geq 6. Furthermore, we present ideas and computations which further support the conjecture also for KK containing 3\sqrt{3}. This enables us to refine the conjecture by explicitly listing the exceptional fields.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2506.20820,
  title  = {On biquadratic fields: when 5 squares are not enough},
  author = {Daniel Dombek},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2506.20820},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

11 pages, comments are welcome

R2 v1 2026-07-01T03:33:42.167Z