Related papers: Pythagoras Numbers for Ternary Forms

We consider Weil sums of binomials of the form $W_{F,d}(a)=\sum_{x \in F} \psi(x^d-a x)$, where $F$ is a finite field, $\psi\colon F\to {\mathbb C}$ is the canonical additive character, $\gcd(d,|F^\times|)=1$, and $a \in F^\times$. If we…

We introduce a $q$-deformation of the Pythagoras equation $a^2 + b^2 = c^2$, which is a polynomial version of it different from the standard one. We construct a polynomial analogue, or ``$q$-analogue'', of every primitive Pythagorean…

In 1998, in the winter issue of the journal Mathematics and Computer education (see [1]), Monte Zerger posed the following problem. He had noticed the Pythagorean triple (216,630,666);(216)^2+(630)^2=(666)^2. Note that 216=6^3 and 666 is…

For each integer $m\ge3$, let $P_m(x)$ denote the generalized $m$-gonal number $\frac{(m-2)x^2-(m-4)x}{2}$ with $x\in\mathbb{Z}$. Given positive integers $a,b,c,k$ and an odd prime number $p$ with $p\nmid c$, we employ the theory of ternary…

Alfeld and Schumaker provide a formula for the dimension of the space of piecewise polynomial functions, called splines, of degree $d$ and smoothness $r$ on a generic triangulation of a planar simplicial complex $\Delta$, for $d \geq 3r+1$.…

For any $m\ge3$, every integer of the form $p_m(x)=\frac{(m-2)x^2-(m-4)x}2$ with $x \in \z$ is said to be a generalized $m$-gonal number. Let $a\le b\le c$ be positive integers. For every non negative integer $n$, if there are integers…

We prove that an additive form of degree $d=2m$, $m$ odd, $m\ge3$, over the unramified quadratic extension $\mathbb{Q}_2(\sqrt{5})$ has a nontrivial zero if the number of variables $s$ satisifies $s \ge 4d+1$. If $3 \nmid d$, then there…

We discuss a problem posed by Ronald Graham about the minimum number, over all 2-colorings of $[1,n]$, of monochromatic $\{x,y,x+ay\}$ triples for $a \geq 1$. We give a new proof of the original case of $a=1$. We show that the minimum…

For a natural number $m$, generalized $m$-gonal numbers are those numbers of the form $p_m(x)=\frac{(m-2)x^2-(m-4)x}{2}$ with $x\in \mathbb Z$. In this paper we establish conditions on $m$ for which the ternary sum $p_m(x)+p_m(y)+p_m(z)$ is…

The generic quadratic form of even dimension n with trivial discriminant over an arbitrary field of characteristic different from 2 containing a square root of -1 can be written in the Witt ring as a sum of 2-fold Pfister forms using n-2…

Generalized Pl\"ucker numbers are defined to count certain types of tangent lines of generic degree $d$ complex projective hypersurfaces. They can be computed by identifying them as coefficients of GL(2)-equivariant cohomology classes of…

We refine Lagrange's four-square theorem in new ways by imposing some restrictions involving powers of two (including $1$). For example, we show that each $n=1,2,3,\ldots$ can be written as $x^2+y^2+z^2+w^2$ $(x,y,z,w\in\mathbb…

The height of an algebraic number $\alpha$ is a measure of how arithmetically complicated $\alpha$ is. We say $\alpha$ is totally $p$-adic if the minimal polynomial of $\alpha$ splits completely over the field $\mathbb{Q}_p$ of $p$-adic…

We prove a conjecture of Comon and Ottaviani that typical real Waring ranks of bivariate forms of degree $d$ take all integer values between $\lfloor \frac{d+2}{2}\rfloor$ and $d$. That is we show that for all $d$ and all $\lfloor…

Let $P$ denote the $3$-dimensional paraboloid over a finite field of odd characteristic in which $-1$ is not a square. We show that the Fourier extension operator associated with $P$ maps $L^2$ to $L^{r}$ for $r > \frac{32}{9} \approx…

For integer $m, p,$ we study tangent power sum $\sum^m_{k=1}\tan^{2p}\frac{\pi k}{2m+1}.$ We prove that, for every $m, p,$ it is integer, and, for a fixed p, it is a polynomial in $m$ of degree $2p.$ We give recurrent, asymptotical and…

We estimate the number of incidences in a configuration of $m$ lines and $n$ points in dimension 3. The main term is $mn^{1/3}$ if we work over the real or complex numbers but $mn^{2/5}$ over finite fields. Both of these are optimal, aside…

Let $p$ be an odd natural number $\ge 3$. Inspired by results from Euclid's {\em Elements}, we express the irrational $$y=\sqrt[p]{d+\sqrt R}, $$ whose degree is $2p$, as a polynomial function of irrationals of degrees $\le p$. In certain…

We consider symmetric tensors of format: $3 \times 3$ over $\mathbb{F}_p$ for $p = 2, 3, 5$; $3 \times 3 \times 3$ over $\mathbb{F}_p$ for $p = 2, 3$; and $3 \times 3 \times 3 \times 3$ over $\mathbb{F}_p$ for $p = 2, 3$. In each case we…

We show that the Pythagoras number of rings of type $\mathbb{R}[x,y, \sqrt{f(x,y)}]$ is infinite, provided that the polynomial $f(x,y)$ satisfies some mild conditions.