Goldbach-Linnik type problems on eight cubes of primes (Q2153792)

A classical result of \textit{L. K. Hua} [Additive theory of prime numbers. Providence, RI: American Mathematical Society (AMS) (1965; Zbl 0192.39304)] states that if \(N\) is a sufficiently large odd integer, then the equation \(N = \sum_{1\leq i\leq 9} p_i^3\) is soluble in primes \(p_1,\dots,p_9\). One may also conjecture that every sufficiently large even integer is a sum of eight cubes of primes. This statement remains open, but good progress has been made on similar problems with an additional \(\epsilon\) of freedom. One strand of such results, replacing one of the primes with another type of integer (e.g.~a natural number or an almost-prime), can be found in the works [\textit{K. F. Roth}, Proc. Lond. Math. Soc. (2) 53, 268--279 (1951; Zbl 0043.27303); \textit{J. Brüdern}, Ann. Sci. Éc. Norm. Supér. (4) 28, No. 4, 461--476 (1995; Zbl 0839.11045); \textit{K. Kawada}, Arch. Math. 69, No. 1, 13--19 (1997; Zbl 0882.11057); \textit{K. Kawada} and \textit{L. Zhao}, Proc. Lond. Math. Soc. (3) 119, No. 4, 867--898 (2019; Zbl 1443.11208)]. The author contributes to a different strand, where one includes powers of \(2\) as additional summands, in the spirit of [\textit{Y. V. Linnik}, Trudy Nat. Inst. Steklov. 38, 152--169 (1951); \textit{P. X. Gallagher}, Invent. Math. 29, 125--142 (1975; Zbl 0305.10044)]. See [\textit{J. Liu} and \textit{M. C. Liu}, Acta Math. Hung. 91, No. 3, 217--243 (2001; Zbl 0980.11045); \textit{J. Liu} and \textit{G. Lü}, Acta Arith. 114, No. 1, 55--70 (2004; Zbl 1050.11084); \textit{Z. Liu}, J. Number Theory 132, No. 4, 735--747 (2012; Zbl 1287.11117); \textit{D. J. Platt} and \textit{T. S. Trudgian}, J. Number Theory 153, 54--62 (2015; Zbl 1328.11102); \textit{X. Zhao} and \textit{W. Ge}, Int. J. Number Theory 16, No. 7, 1547--1555 (2020; Zbl 1470.11257); \textit{X. Zhao}, Ramanujan J. 57, No. 1, 239--251 (2022; Zbl 1498.11203)], the most recent of which shows that every sufficiently large even integer can be written in the form \(p_1^3+\dots+p_8^3+2^{\nu_1}+\dots+2^{\nu_{169}}\) with \(p_1,\dots,p_8\) prime and \(\nu_1,\dots,\nu_{169}\geq 1\). In the present paper, the author decreases \(169\) by a large factor, down to \(30\). The improvement comes from sharpened integral estimates in the circle method. One of the cleanest innovations may be Lemma~4.7, an estimate for the ninth moment of a cubic exponential sum over primes, over certain minor arcs.