A sum of squares not divisible by a prime (Q2084540)

In this paper, a refinement of the classical Lagrange Four-Square Theorem is considered. For a prime \(p\), define \(S(p)\) to be the smallest positive integer \(k\) such that every positive integer can be expressed as a sum of at most \(k\) squares of integers that are not divisible by \(p\). The authors prove that \(S(2)=10\), \(S(3)=6\), \(S(5)=5\), and \(S(p)=4\) for every prime \(p\geq 5\). More precisely, it is shown that for \(p\geq 5\), every positive integer \(n\) can be expressed as a sum of at most four squares not divisible by \(p\) with the single exception of \(p=5\) and \(n=79\), in which case five squares are needed. In various cases, the proofs involve the use of the Minkowski-Siegel formula, the classical theory of binary quadratic forms, and some results from the theory of modular forms. Ramanujan's ternary quadratic form \(x^2+y^2+10z^2\) plays a role in the case when \(p\equiv 3\pmod 4\) and \(n\) is divisible by \(p\).