English

Sums of four rational squares with certain restrictions

Number Theory 2022-01-26 v7

Abstract

In this paper we mainly study sums of four rational squares with certain restrictions. Let Q0\mathbb Q_{\ge0} be the set of nonnegative rational numbers. We establish the following four-square theorem for rational numbers: For any a,b,c,dQ0a,b,c,d\in\mathbb Q_{\ge0}, each rQ0r\in\mathbb Q_{\ge0} can be written as x2+y2+z2+w2x^2+y^2+z^2+w^2 with x,y,z,wQ0x,y,z,w\in\mathbb Q_{\ge0} such that ax+by+cz+dwax+by+cz+dw is a rational square (or a rational cube). This paper also contains many conjectures; for example, for any positive integers aa and bb with gcd(a,b)=1\gcd(a,b)=1, we conjecture that each rQ0r\in\mathbb Q_{\ge0} can be written as aw4+bx4+y2+z2aw^4+bx^4+y^2+z^2 with w,x,y,zQw,x,y,z\in\mathbb Q.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2010.05775,
  title  = {Sums of four rational squares with certain restrictions},
  author = {Zhi-Wei Sun},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2010.05775},
  year   = {2022}
}

Comments

31 pages. For new additions, see Conjectures 6.4-6.6 and 6.21-6.25