Trevor Wooley: Waring’s Problem (NTWS 148)
Channel: Number Theory Web Seminar
Date: 2023-05-19

Abstract: In 1770, E. Waring made an assertion these days interpreted as conjecturing that when $k$ is a natural number, all positive integers may be written as the sum of a number $g(k)$ of positive integral $k$-th powers, with $g(k)$ finite. Since the work of Hardy and Littlewood a century ago, attention has largely shifted to the problem of bounding $G(k)$, the least number $s$ having the property that all sufficiently large integers can be written as the sum of $s$ positive integral $k$-th powers. It is known that $G(2)=4$ (Lagrange), $G(3)\le 7$ (Linnik), $G(4)=16$ (Davenport), and $G(5)\le 17$, $G(6)\le 24$, ..., $G(20)\le 142$ (Vaughan and Wooley). For large $k$ one has $G(k)\le k(\log k+\log \log k+2+o(1))$ (Wooley). We report on very recent progress joint with Joerg Bruedern. One or two new world records will be on display.

Link to slides: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Wb9EEuVoGNe-GuZslNQVT0JaC5ZPTG7v

Number Theory Web Seminar: https://www.ntwebseminar.org

Original air date: 
Thursday, November 17, 2022 (8am PST, 11am EST, 4pm GMT, 5pm CET, 6pm Israel Standard Time, 9:30pm Indian Standard Time)
Friday, November 18, 2022 (12am CST, 3am AEDT, 5am NZDT)