Related papers: Refining Lagrange's four-square theorem
Let $d$ be a square-free integer and $\mathbb{Z}[\sqrt{d}]$ a quadratic ring of integers. For a given $n\in\mathbb{Z}[\sqrt{d}]$, a set of $m$ non-zero distinct elements in $\mathbb{Z}[\sqrt{d}]$ is called a Diophantine $D(n)$-$m$-tuple (or…
For positive integers $m$ and $n$, the Zarankiewicz number $Z_{2,2}(m,n)$ can be defined as the maximum total degree of a linear hypergraph with $m$ vertices and $n$ edges. Guy determined $Z_{2,2}(m,n)$ for all $n \geq \binom{m}{2}/3+O(m)$.…
In this article, we study a sum of squares of integers except for a fixed one. For any nonnegative integer $n$, we find the minimum number of squares of integers except for $n$ whose sums represent all positive integers that are represented…
This paper is concerned with the problem of finding two sets of integers, $\{a_1, a_2, \ldots$, $a_m\}$ and $\{b_1, b_2, \ldots, b_n\}$, such that all the $mn$ sums $a_i+b_j, i=1, \ldots, m, j=1, \ldots, n$, are perfect squares. A method is…
We clarify the relationship between different multiple polylogarithms in weight~4 by writing suitable linear combinations of a given type of iterated integral I_{n_1,...,n_d}(z_1,...,z_d), in depth d>1 and weight \sum_i n_i=4 in terms of…
In this note, we try to understand the recent development on the Waring-Goldbach problem involving cubes of primes. Especially, we want to determine whether integers that are either primes, squares of primes, cubes of primes, or a cube of…
We consider the problem of finding 4 rational squares, such that the product of any two plus the sum of the same two always gives a square. We give some historical background and exhibit one such quadruple.
A well known theorem of Lagrange states that the simple continued fraction of a real number $\alpha$ is periodic if and only if $\alpha$ is a quadratic irrational. We examine non-periodic and non-simple continued fractions formed by two…
We consider words $w$ over the alphabet $\Sigma=\{0,1,2\}$. It is shown that there are irreducibly square-free words of all lengths $n$ except 4,5,7 and 12. Such a word is square-free (i.e., it has no repetitions $uu$ as factors), but by…
A set $\{a, b, c, d\}$ of four non-zero distinct polynomials in $\mathbb{Z}[i][X]$ is said to be a Diophantine $D(4)$-quadruple if the product of any two of its distinct elements increased by 4 is a square of some polynomial in…
A tangram is a word in which every letter occurs an even number of times. Thus it can be cut into parts that can be arranged into two identical words. The \emph{cut number} of a tangram is the minimum number of required cuts in this…
Assume $x,\ y,\ n$ are positive integers and $n$ is odd. In this note, we show that the class number of the imaginary quadratic field $\mathbb{Q}(\sqrt{x^{2}-y^{n}})$ is divisible by $n$ for fixed $x, n$ if $\gcd(2x,y)=1$ and $y>C$ where…
Let $K$ be a complex bi-quadratic field with ring of integers $\mathcal{O}_{K}$. For $K = \mathbb{Q}(\sqrt{-m}$, $\sqrt{n}$), where $ m \equiv 3 \pmod 4 $ and $ n \equiv 1 \pmod 4$, we prove that every algebraic integer can be written as…
In 2022, Z.-W. Sun defined \begin{equation*} w_k^{(\alpha)}{(x)}=\sum_{j=1}^{k}w(k,j)^{\alpha}x^{j-1}, \end{equation*} where $k,\alpha$ are positive integers and $w(k,j)=\frac{1}{j}\binom{k-1}{j-1}\binom{k+j}{j-1}$. Let $(x)_{0}=1$ and…
We consider Lagrange's equation $x_1^2 + x_2^2 + x_3^2 + x_4^2 = N$, where $N$ is a sufficiently large and odd integer, and prove that it has a solution in natural numbers $x_1, \dots, x_4 $ such that $x_1 x_2 x_3 x_4 + 1$ has no more than…
We show that for every positive integer n there is a simple closed curve in the plane (which can be taken infinitely differentiable and convex) which has exactly n inscribed squares.
A \emph{magic square} is an $n \times n$ array of distinct positive integers whose sum along any row, column, or main diagonal is the same number. We compute the number of such squares for $n=4$, as a function of either the magic sum or an…
In 2013, Farhi conjectured that for each $m\geq 3$, every natural number $n$ can be represented as $\lfloor x^2/m\rfloor+\lfloor y^2/m\rfloor+\lfloor z^2/m\rfloor$ with $x,y,z\in\Z$, where $\lfloor\cdot\rfloor$ denotes the floor function.…
In this paper we confirm three conjectures of Z.-W. Sun on determinants. We first show that any odd integer $n>3$ divides the determinant $$\left|(i^2+dj^2)\left(\frac{i^2+dj^2}n\right)\right|_{0\le i,j\le (n-1)/2},$$ where $d$ is any…
Combining McShane's identity on a hyperbolic punctured torus with Schmutz's work on the Markov Uniqueness Conjecture (MUC), we find that MUC is equivalent to the identity \begin{equation} \sum_{n=1}^\infty \, \left( 3- L_n \right) \, = \, 4…