Ebenfelt's SOS conjecture for ranks of prolonged sums of squares

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Let n≥2n \geq 2, let A(z,zˉ)A(z,\bar{z}) be a real polynomial, and let SOSn{\rm{SOS}}_n denote the set of real polynomials expressible as sums of squared moduli of holomorphic polynomials. Write RR for the rank of A(z,zˉ)∥z∥2A(z,\bar{z})\|z\|^2, and let κ0\kappa_0 be the largest integer such that

κ0(κ0+1)2<n.\frac{\kappa_0(\kappa_0+1)}{2}<n.

SOS Conjecture. If A(z,zˉ)∥z∥2∈SOSnA(z,\bar{z})\|z\|^2\in {\rm{SOS}}_n, then either

R≥(κ0+1)n−(κ0+1)κ02−1,R\geq (\kappa_0+1)n-\frac{(\kappa_0+1)\kappa_0}{2}-1,

or there exists κ∈{0,1,2,⋯ ,κ0}\kappa\in\{0,1,2,\cdots,\kappa_0\} such that

κn−κ(κ−1)2≤R≤κn.\kappa n-\frac{\kappa(\kappa-1)}{2}\leq R\leq \kappa n.

The conjecture concerns the gaps in possible ranks under the positive-semidefiniteness condition. Huang's lemma proves that R=0R=0 or R≥nR\geq n, so the claim holds for n=2n=2; partial results are known for n≥3n\geq 3, including the left-hand bound when A∈SOSnA\in {\rm{SOS}}_n.

References

Primary source

Zhiwei Wang, Chenlong Yue and Xiangyu Zhou, “A Newton-Okounkov Body Viewpoint on the SOS Conjecture”, arXiv:2512.07133 (2026).

Additional references

3 papers in this index state this conjecture (2021–2025). The statement above is taken from the most recent of them; the others are arXiv:2509.04314, arXiv:2112.11655.

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