Analytic surface germs with minimal Pythagoras number (Q1407797)

The Pythagoras number of an analytic set germ is the smallest number \(p\) such that every sum of squares of analytic function germs is a sum of at most \(p\) squares of analytic function germs. It is known that \(\bullet\) the Pythagoras number is always finite for surface germs and always infinite in higher dimensions, and that \(\bullet\) any complete intersection germ of dimension at least 2 with Pythagoras number 2 is analytically equivalent to a surface germ embedded in \(\mathbb{R}^3\). The author gives a complete list of the surface germs in \(\mathbb{R}^3\) that have Pythagoras number 2. The unmixed surface germs with Pythagoras number 2 are exactly those for which every positive semi-definite function germ is a sum of squares (notation: \(psd= sos\)). For mixed surface germs there are two cases, for one of them \(psd= sos\), for the other one \(psd\neq sos\). Examples for surfaces with higher embedding dimension are included.