English

Universal sums of three quadratic polynomials

Number Theory 2020-02-14 v8

Abstract

Let a,b,c,d,ea,b,c,d,e and ff be integers with ace>0a\ge c\ge e>0, b>ab>-a and ba(mod2)b\equiv a\pmod2, d>cd>-c and dc(mod2)d\equiv c\pmod 2, f>ef>-e and fe(mod2)f\equiv e\pmod2. Suppose that bdb\ge d if a=ca=c, and dfd\ge f if c=ec=e. When b(ab)b(a-b), d(cd)d(c-d) and f(ef)f(e-f) are not all zero, we prove that if each nN={0,1,2,}n\in\mathbb N=\{0,1,2,\ldots\} can be written x(ax+b)/2+y(cy+d)/2+z(ez+f)/2x(ax+b)/2+y(cy+d)/2+z(ez+f)/2 with x,y,zNx,y,z\in\mathbb N then the tuple (a,b,c,d,e,f)(a,b,c,d,e,f) must be on our list of 473473 candidates, and show that 56 of them meet our purpose. When b[0,a)b\in[0,a), d[0,c)d\in[0,c) and f[0,e)f\in[0,e), we investigate the universal tuples (a,b,c,d,e,f)(a,b,c,d,e,f) over Z\mathbb Z for which any nNn\in\mathbb N can be written x(ax+b)/2+y(cy+d)/2+z(ez+f)/2x(ax+b)/2+y(cy+d)/2+z(ez+f)/2 with x,y,zZx,y,z\in\mathbb Z, and show that there are totally 12082 such candidates some of which are proved to be universal tuples over Z\mathbb Z. For example, we show that any nNn\in\mathbb N can be written as x(x+1)/2+y(3y+1)/2+z(5z+1)/2x(x+1)/2+y(3y+1)/2+z(5z+1)/2 with x,y,zZx,y,z\in\mathbb Z, and conjecture that each nNn\in\mathbb N can be written as x(x+1)/2+y(3y+1)/2+z(5z+1)/2x(x+1)/2+y(3y+1)/2+z(5z+1)/2 with x,y,zNx,y,z\in\mathbb N.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1502.03056,
  title  = {Universal sums of three quadratic polynomials},
  author = {Zhi-Wei Sun},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1502.03056},
  year   = {2020}
}

Comments

26 pages

R2 v1 2026-06-22T08:26:58.870Z