5

There's Fermat's theorem on sums of two squares.

As the prime numbers that are $1\bmod4$ can be divided into the sum of two squares, will the squared numbers be unique?

For example, $41=4^2+5^2$ and the squared numbers will be $4$ and $5$.

Zat Mack
  • 575

3 Answers3

8

Just to complement Pantelis' answer, the reason why they are unique can be easily seen from the proof using the Gaussian integers $\mathbb{Z}[i]$, which is a UFD.

M Turgeon
  • 10,419
7

Yes, if you don't take into account the order of the two numbers or $\pm$ sign in front of the numbers.

draks ...
  • 18,449
PAD
  • 4,113
4

Primes of the form $p=4k+1\;$ have a unique decomposition as sum of squares $p=a^2+b^2$ with $0<a<b\;$, due to Thue's Lemma.

Further, primes of the form $p=4n+3$, never have a decomposition into $2$ squares, proven in various ways here.

Glorfindel
  • 3,955
draks ...
  • 18,449