Sums of squares of linear forms (Q5903202)

For a field of characteristic \(\neq 2\) let \(g_ F(n)\) be the smallest positive integer \(r\) such that any sum of squares of \(n\)-ary \(F\)-linear forms is a sum of \(r\) squares of \(n\)-ary \(F\)-linear forms. L. J. Mordell proved in 1932 that \(g_{\mathbb Q}(n)=n+3\) for all \(n\geq 1\). The authors observe that \(g_ F(n)\) is the smallest \(r\) such that every \(n\)-dimensional totally positive quadratic form over \(F\) is a subform of \(r\times <1>\). This opens up some new possibilities exploited in part by the authors. They relate \(g_ F(n)\) to the ``length of \(F\)'', \(\ell (F)\), the smallest \(r\) such that every totally positive quadratic form over \(F\) of dimension \(r\) represents all totally positive elements of \(F\). The main result states that \(g_ F(n)=n+\ell (F)-1\), whenever \(\ell (F)\) is finite and \(n\geq \ell (F)-1\). They also generalize Mordell's result to any global field and study many other examples. They compare \(\ell (F)\) to the \(u\)-invariant in the case of a formally real field \(F\) and discuss the asymptotic behavior of \(g_ F(n)\) when \(\ell (F)=\infty\).