On Waring's problem for cubic forms (Q1183125)

Let \(w\) be a cubic form in \(n\) variables over the complex field and let \(r\) be the smallest integer such that \(w\) can be expressed as a sum of cubes of \(r\) linear forms. Some theorems are proved that connect \(r\) with the ranks of certain matrices associated with \(w\) for arbitrary \(n\) and for \(n\) = 5. Based on these theorems, an algorithm to express a cubic form in five variables as a sum of cubes of linear forms is proposed. The paper is concluded with two examples of indecomposable cubic forms: for the first form it is shown that \(r\) = 7 and that there exists a one- parameter set of representatives of the form as a sum of cubes of seven linear forms, while for the second form it is shown that \(r \geq 8\).