On Waring's Problem in Number Fields

Let K be an algebraic number field of degree n over the rationals,and denote by J_k the subring of K generated by the kth powersof the integers of K. Then G_K(k) is defined to be the smallests1 such that, for all totally positive integers vJ_k of sufficientlylarge norm, the Diophantine equation (1.1) is soluble in totally non-negative integers _i of K satisfying N(_i)<<N(v)^1/k (1is). (1.2) In (1.2) and throughout this paper, all implicit constants areassumed to depend only on K, k, and s. The notation G_K(k) generalizesthe familiar symbol G(k) used in Waring's problem, since wehave G_Q(k) = G(k). By extending the Hardy–Littlewood circle method to numberfields, Siegel [8, 9] initiated a line of research (see [1–4,11]) which generalized existing methods for treating G(k). Thistypically led to upper bounds for G_K(k) of approximate strengthnB(k), where B(k) was the best contemporary upper bound forG(k). For example, Eda [2] gave an extension of Vinogradov'sproof (see [13] or [15]) that G(k)(2+o(1))k log k. The presentpaper will eliminate the need for lengthy generalizations assuch, by introducing a new and considerably shorter approachto the problem. Our main result is the following theorem.