Sums of \(2m\)-th powers of rational functions in one variable over real closed fields (Q1910185)

Suppose that \(R\) is a real closed field, and let \(R[X]\) be the polynomial ring in one variable. Given a natural number \(m\geq 1\), one may ask for criteria to decide whether a polynomial \(f\in R[X]\) is a sum of \(2m\)-th powers in \(R(X)\). It is a classical result that for \(m= 1\) this is the case if and only if \(f\) is positive semi-definite. In the present paper the authors consider the case \(m \geq 2\). Specifically, they study the following questions: 1) Given \(f\), when does there exist a representation \[ f= \sum^N_{i=1} \left( {g_i \over h} \right)^{2m}, \quad g_i, h \in R[X]? \] 2) If \(f\) can be so represented, are there bounds for \(N\) and \(\deg (h)\)? First suppose that \(R\) is a subfield of \(\mathbb{R}\). Then it is known that \(f\) is a sum of \(2m\)-th powers if and only if \(f\) is positive semi-definite, \(2m|\deg(f)\), and the multiplicity of every root of \(f\) in \(R\) is divisible by \(2m\). The authors show that this characterization of sums of \(2m\)-th powers can be extended to arbitrary real closed fields. This requires an additional condition involving the distance between different roots of \(f\) in the algebraic closure \(R[i]\) of \(R\). Concerning the second question, if \(f\) has a representation then both the number of summands and the degree of the denominator can be bounded efficiently in terms of \(m\), \(\deg (f)\) and the distances between the roots of \(f\) in \(R[i]\). The \(2m\)-th Pythagoras number \(P_{2m} (R(X))\) is defined to be the least integer \(N\) such that every sum of \(2m\)-th powers in \(R(X)\) is a sum of at most \(N\) \(2m\)-th powers. It is known that this number is always finite. Previous estimates are improved. In particular, \(3\leq P_4 (R(X)) \leq 6\).