Monochromatic sums of squares (Q1650168)

For any integer \(k\geq 1\), a colouring in \(k\) colours of the set \(D\) of the squares of the integers is a partition of \(D\) into \(k\) disjoint subsets. For any \(k\geq 1\) let \(s(k)\) be the smallest integer such that given any colouring of \(D\) in \(k\) colours, every sufficiently large integer is expressible as a sum of at most \(s(k)\) squares, all of the same colour. In the paper under review, the authors prove for \(k\geq 2\) that \[ s(k)\leq k\,e^{\frac{(3+\log 2+o(1))\log k}{\log\log k}}, \] where in the above approximation \(o(1)\ll\frac{\log\log\log k}{\log\log k}\) for all large enough \(k\). To prove the above result, the authors use circle method to demonstrate an upper bound for \(E_6(S)\), where for any subset \(S\) of the integers and any integer \(m\geq 1\) they write \(E_m(S)\) for the number of tuples \((x_1, x_2, \dots , x_{2m})\in S^{2m}\) satisfying \(x_1+x_2+\cdots+x_m=x_{m+1}+x_{m+2}+\cdots+x_{2m}\).