Diameter lower bounds for Waring graphs and multiloop networks (Q686473)

The Waring number for the power \(m\) is the smallest positive integer \(s\) such that every positive integer can be expressed as the sum of at most \(s\) numbers which are \(m\)th powers of integers. It may be defined also on the Galois field \(Z_ p\), where \(p\) is a prime number. Then it is denoted by \(g(p,m)\). The number \(g(p,m)\) can be determined with help of a certain graph called Waring graph. The paper presents a lower bound for \(g(p,m)\), using Euler's totient function. Further a theorem on circulant graphs is proved which generalizes that result.