Sums of almost equal squares of primes (Q765150)

The authors study the representation of large integers \(n\) as sums of almost equal squares of primes. In particular they show that all sufficiently large integers \(n\) satisfying a natural congruence condition, can be represented as a sum of five squares of primes \(p_j\) such that \(|p_j - (n/5)^{1/2}| \leq n^{4/9+\varepsilon}\). This improves on a result of \textit{J. Liu, G. Lü} and \textit{T. Zhan} [Sci. China, Ser. A 49, No. 5, 611--619 (2006; Zbl 1106.11033)], who had \(9/20\) in place of \(4/9\). The proof uses the circle method, and the improvement is based on bringing in Harman's sieve method (see [\textit{G. Harman}, Prime-detecting sieves. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press (2007; Zbl 1220.11118)]) The paper contains also results which concern exceptional sets for representations with less than five almost equal squares, as well as a result on how ``almost equal'' the squares can be made. In that case there are \(s > 5\) of them.