On a question of Hua Lookeng (Q920144)

Let k be a natural number \(\geq 2\) and put \(K_ 1=\prod p\), the product being extended over those primes p for which \(\phi\) (p)\(| k\). Then the number of positive integers \(N\leq X\) with \((N-1,K_ 1)=1\), not representable in the form \(N=p_ 1+p^ k_ 2\) with primes \(p_ 1\) and \(p_ 2\), is of the order of \(X^{\gamma}\), where \(\gamma <1\) always and \(\gamma <1-1/137k^ 3\log k\) if k is sufficiently large. Furthermore, let \(\Phi (x,y)=a_ 0x^ 2+b_ 0xy+c_ 0y^ 2\) be a primitive quadratic form (i.e. a form with \((a_ 0,b_ 0,c_ 0)=1)\) with discriminant \(\Delta_ 0\), and let \(\rho\) (q,N) denote the number of solutions (u,v,w) of the congruence \(\Phi (u,v)+w^ k\equiv N(mod q)\), \((uvw,q)=1\). Put \(K_ 2=\prod p^{\nu_ 0+1}\) with those primes p for which \(p| 30\Delta_ 0\) or \(p| N-1\) and \(\phi\) (p)\(| k\), where \(p^{\nu_ 0}\| (\Delta_ 0,k_ 0)\), \(k_ 0=k\) if \(2\nmid k\) and \(k_ 0=2k\) if \(2| k\). If \(\Delta_ 0\neq 0\) then the number of positive integers \(N\leq X\) with \(\rho (K_ 2,N)>0\), not representable in the form \(N=\Phi (p_ 1,p_ 2)+p^ k_ 3\) with primes \(p_ 1\), \(p_ 2\) and \(p_ 3\), is \(\ll X^{\gamma}\), where \(\gamma\) is the same number as above.