Sums of squares, cubes, and higher powers.
We prove that in a ring of S-integers containing 1/2, any totally positive element is a sum of five squares. We also exhibit examples of such rings where some totally positive elements cannot be written as the sum of four squares.
Estimates are provided for sth moments of cubic smooth Weyl sums, when 4 ≤ s ≤ 8, by enhancing the author's iterative method that delivers estimates beyond classical convexity. As a consequence, an improved lower bound is presented for the number of integers not exceeding X that are represented as the sum of three cubes of natural numbers.