Universal binary Hermitian forms (Q4340863)

A positive integral quadratic form over a totally real number field is said to be universal if it represents every totally positive integer of the field. The history of a search for such forms dates back to Lagrange's proof in 1770 that the form \(x^2+y^2 +z^2+ \omega^2\) represents all positive integers. While there is no universal binary quadratic form, \textit{H. Maass} [Abh. Math. Semin. Hansische Univ. 14, 185-191 (1941; Zbl 0025.01602)] showed that the sum of three squares is universal over \(\mathbb{Q}(\sqrt 5)\). \textit{W.-K. Chan}, \textit{M.-H. Kim} and \textit{S. Raghavan} [Jap. J. Math., New Ser. 22, No. 2, 263-273 (1996; Zbl 0868.11020)]showed that among the real quadratic fields only the fields \(\mathbb{Q}(\sqrt 2)\), \(\mathbb{Q}(\sqrt 3)\) and \(\mathbb{Q}(\sqrt 5)\) admit universal ternary classic integral quadratic forms. In this paper, the authors consider universal positive definite Hermitian forms. It is proved that over all imaginary quadratic fields, there exist only finitely many classes of universal binary positive definite Hermitian forms. All such forms have been determined for the imaginary quadratic fields of class number 1, i.e. the fields \(\mathbb{Q}(\sqrt m)\) where \(m=-1\), \(-2\), \(-3\), \(-7\), \(-11\), \(-19\), \(-43\), \(-67\) and \(-163\).