Pythagoras numbers of orders in biquadratic fields

Abstract: We examine the Pythagoras number

m a t h c a l P (m a t h c a l O_{K})

of the ring of integers

m a t h c a l O_{K}

in a totally real biquadratic number field

K

. We show that the known upper bound

7

is attained in a large and natural infinite family of such fields. In contrast, for almost all fields

m a t h b b Q (s q r t 5, s q r t s)

we prove

m a t h c a l P (m a t h c a l O_{K}) = 5

. Further we show that

5

is a lower bound for all but seven fields

K

and

6

is a lower bound in an asymptotic sense.

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