English

On integers with many representations as the sum of $k$th powers of primes

Number Theory 2025-09-17 v2 Combinatorics

Abstract

For a natural number k>1k>1, let fk(n)f_k(n) denote the number of distinct representations of a natural number nn of the form pk+qkp^k+q^k for primes p,qp,q. We prove that, for all k>1k>1, lim supnfk(n)=.\limsup_{n\to\infty}f_k(n)=\infty. This positively answers a conjecture of Erdos, which asks if there are natural numbers nn with arbitrarily many distinct representations of the form p1k+p2k++pkkp_1^k+p_2^k+\dots+p_k^k for primes p1,p2,,pkp_1,p_2,\dots,p_k.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2509.11558,
  title  = {On integers with many representations as the sum of $k$th powers of primes},
  author = {Anay Aggarwal},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2509.11558},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

Error in pigeonhole argument