On the \(p\)-adic denseness of the quotient set of a polynomial image (Q1634424)

Let \(p\) be a prime, \({\mathbb Q}_p\) be the field of the \(p\)-adic numbers and \(A\) be a subset of \({\mathbb Q_p}\). Let \(R(A)=\{a/b: a,b\in {\mathbb Q}_p,~b\ne 0\}\) be the ratio set of \(A\). Recently, there is some activity aimed at determining whether \(R(A)\) is dense in \({\mathbb Q}_p\) for various interesting sets \(A\), usually of integers from \({\mathbb Z}\). For example, it is known that if \(A\) is the Fibonacci sequence then \(R(A)\) is dense in \({\mathbb Q}_p\). In the paper under review the authors look at the set of sums of \(n\) powers of fixed length \(m\) of integers \(S_{m}^n:=\{x_1^m+\cdots+x_m^n: x_1,\ldots,x_n\in {\mathbb Z}\}\), a set interesting from the point of view of Waring's theorem. Of course, if \(n\) is fixed, then \(S_m^n\) contains all large integers if \(m\ge m(n)\) is sufficiently large with respect to \(n\), so given \(n\) the problem is interesting especially for small values of \(m\). In the paper [\textit{S. R. Garcia} et al., Acta Arith. 179, No. 2, 163--184 (2017; Zbl 1428.11023)] it was shown that \(R(S_2^2)\) is dense in \({\mathbb Q}_p\) if and only if \(p\equiv 1\pmod 4\), that \(R(S_m^2)\) is dense in \({\mathbb Q}_p\) for all \(m\ge 3\) and that \(R(S_m^3)\) is dense in \({\mathbb Q}_p\) for all \(m\ge 2\). In the paper under review the authors continue this line of research and prove several results. For example, they prove that for \(k=1,2,3,4\), we have that \(S(R_m^{2^k})\) is dense in \({\mathbb Q}_2\) if and only if \(m\ge 3\) when \(k=1\) and \(m\ge 2^{k+1}\) when \(k=2,3,4\). They also prove that \(R(S_2^n)\) is dense in \({\mathbb Q}_p\) whenever \(n\) is odd. They also completely describe the situation when \(n=4\). Namely, they show that \(R(S_2^4)\) is dense in \({\mathbb Q}_p\) if and only if \(p\equiv 1\pmod 8\); \(R(S_3^4)\) is dense in \({\mathbb Q}_p\) if and only if \(p\ne 5,29\); \(R(S_4^4)\) is dense in \({\mathbb Q}_p \) if and only if \(p\ne 5\) and \(R(S_m^4)\) is dense in \({\mathbb Q}_p\) for all \(m\ge 5\).