2

Is the number of coprime solutions of "n-Pythagorean" equation $x_0^n = x_1^n + \dots + x_n^n$ finite or infinite for $n>3$ ?

Equivalently, does the hypersurface $\{X_0^n = X_1^n + \dots + X_n^n\} \subset \Bbb Q P^{n+1}$ contain infinite number of rational points?

I know the Ramanujan's infinite series for $n=3$

grep
  • 549

1 Answers1

2

Using elliptic curves, it can be shown there are infinitely many rational points for the case $n=4$ and $n=5$ with the constraint,

$$x_0+x_1+x_2+\dots +x_n = 0\hskip1.3in$$

$$x_0^4 = x_1^4+x_2^4+ \dots +x_4^4,\quad \text{by Jacobi-Madden}$$

$$x_0^5 = x_1^5+x_2^5+ \dots +x_5^5,\quad \text{by Lander}\hskip0.6in$$

Without the constraint, there is also,

$$x_0^7 = x_1^7+x_2^7+ \dots +x_\color{red}8^7,\quad \text{by Choudhry}\hskip0.4in$$

a polynomial identity with coefficients as high as $10^{1180}$, though this has an extra term re your post.

  • 1
    For $n=7$ *and* with the constraint, there are $27$ known solutions to $x_0^7 = x_1^7+x_2^7 +\dots x_7^7$, but nobody knows if there are infinitely many. See this MO post. – Tito Piezas III Mar 20 '18 at 03:18