English

On some universal sums of generalized polygonal numbers

Number Theory 2016-06-24 v3 Combinatorics

Abstract

For m=3,4,m=3,4,\ldots those pm(x)=(m2)x(x1)/2+xp_m(x)=(m-2)x(x-1)/2+x with xZx\in\mathbb Z are called generalized mm-gonal numbers. Sun [13] studied for what values of positive integers a,b,ca,b,c the sum ap5+bp5+cp5ap_5+bp_5+cp_5 is universal over Z\mathbb Z (i.e., any nN={0,1,2,}n\in\mathbb N=\{0,1,2,\ldots\} has the form ap5(x)+bp5(y)+cp5(z)ap_5(x)+bp_5(y)+cp_5(z) with x,y,zZx,y,z\in\mathbb Z). We prove that p5+bp5+3p5(b=1,2,3,4,9)p_5+bp_5+3p_5\,(b=1,2,3,4,9) and p5+2p5+6p5p_5+2p_5+6p_5 are universal over Z\mathbb Z, as conjectured by Sun. Sun also conjectured that any nNn\in\mathbb N can be written as p3(x)+p5(y)+p11(z)p_3(x)+p_5(y)+p_{11}(z) and 3p3(x)+p5(y)+p7(z)3p_3(x)+p_5(y)+p_7(z) with x,y,zNx,y,z\in\mathbb N; in contrast, we show that p3+p5+p11p_3+p_5+p_{11} and 3p3+p5+p73p_3+p_5+p_7 are universal over Z\mathbb Z. Our proofs are essentially elementary and hence suitable for general readers.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0906.2450,
  title  = {On some universal sums of generalized polygonal numbers},
  author = {Fan Ge and Zhi-Wei Sun},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0906.2450},
  year   = {2016}
}

Comments

Final published version

R2 v1 2026-06-21T13:13:03.309Z