Positive semidefinite germs in real analytic surfaces (Q5957316)

One of the problems of real algebra is to determine whether or not a positive semidefinite function is a sum of squares. In this paper this question is investigated for real analytic surface germs \(X \subset {\mathbb R}^3\). In fact, the author provides a complete list of surface germs for which the equality \({\mathcal P}(X) = \Sigma(X)\) holds, where \({\mathcal P}(X)\) denotes the set of positive semidefinite analytic function germs and \(\Sigma(X)\) the set of all sums of squares of analytic functions germs. Moreover, it is proved that in all these cases any positive semidefinite germ is a sum of two squares. For the proof some results of \textit{J. M. Ruiz} [Math. Z. 230, 317-328 (1999; Zbl 0930.32007)] about Brieskorn's singularity, the two planes and Whitney's umbrella are used. An Artin type approximation theorem is obtained by the author to reduce the problem to a mixed polynomial case. After that, the author goes from each surface in the list to one of the already mentioned germs by blowing-ups and solves the problem of clearing denominators.