Universal sums of generalized pentagonal numbers

Abstract: For an integer

x

, an integer of the form

P_{5} (x) = f r a c 3 x^{2} - x 2

is called a generalized pentagonal number. For positive integers

a l p h a_{1}, d o t s, a l p h a_{k}

, a sum

P h i_{a l p h a_{1}, d o t s, a l p h a_{k}} (x_{1}, x_{2}, d o t s, x_{k}) = a l p h a_{1} P_{5} (x_{1}) + a l p h a_{2} P_{5} (x_{2}) + c d o t s + a l p h a_{k} P_{5} (x_{k})

of generalized pentagonal numbers is called universal if

P h i_{a l p h a_{1}, d o t s, a l p h a_{k}} (x_{1}, x_{2}, d o t s, x_{k}) = N

has an integer solution

(x_{1}, x_{2}, d o t s, x_{k}) i n m a t h b b Z^{k}

for any non-negative integer

N

. In this article, we prove that there are exactly

234

proper universal sums of generalized pentagonal numbers. Furthermore, the "pentagonal theorem of

109

" is proved, which states that an arbitrary sum

P h i_{a l p h a_{1}, d o t s, a l p h a_{k}} (x_{1}, x_{2}, d o t s, x_{k})

is universal if and only if it represents the integers

1, 3, 8, 9, 11, 18, 19, 25, 27, 43, 98

, and

109

.

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