Regular ternary sums of generalized pentagonal numbers (Q6969869)

For an integer \(x\), denote by \(p_5(x)\) be the \(x\)th generalized pentagonal number \((3x^3-x)/2\). This paper under review considers quadratic polynomials of the form\N\[\Nf=f(x_1,x_2,x_3)=ap_5(x_1)+bp_5(x_2)+cp_5(x_3),\N\]\Nwhere \(a,b,c \in \mathbb{N}\) and \(x_1,x_2,x_3 \in \mathbb{Z}\). Such a polynomial \(f\) is called a ternary pentagonal form and denoted by \(\text{pentagon}(a,b,c)\).\N\NA quadratic form \(f\) is called regular if it represents all nonnegative integers \(n\) which are locally represented, i.e., for which the equation \(f(x_1,\dots,x_k)=n\) is solvable over the \(p\)-adic integers \(\mathbb{Z}_p\) for all primes \(p\).\N\NThis paper shows that there are at most \(42\) regular ternary pentagonal forms (Theorem 1.1). The list of all candidates are listed in a table (Table 1). Moreover, the author proves that \(41\) out of the \(42\) forms are in fact regular (Theorem 1.2). The remaining one is \(\mathrm{pentagon}(1,3,25)\), which is conjectured to be regular by a computer search for \(n\le 10^9\) (Conjecture 1.3).\N\NOne of the key ingredients is the Watson transformation (see [\textit{G. L. Watson}, Some problems in the theory of numbers. University of London (PhD Thesis) (1953)]), which is also utilized in the paper [\textit{M. Kim}, J. Korean Math. Soc. 62, No. 2, 401--420 (2025; Zbl 08019978)] studying octagonal ones. It is crucial that applying it finitely many times to any primitive regular ternary pentagonal form leads to a ``stable'' regular ternary pentagonal form (Lemma 2.5).