Algorithms for representing positive odd integers as the sum of arithmetic progressions

Abstract

This paper delves into the historical and recent developments in this area of mathematical inquiry, tracing the evolution from Wheatstone’s representation of powers of an integer as sums of arithmetic progressions to extensions of Sylvester’s Theorem (Sylvester and Franklin, [14]). Sylvester’s Theorem, a result that determines the representability of positive integers as sums of consecutive integers, has been the foundation for numerous extensions, including the representation of integers as sums of specific arithmetic progressions and powers of such progressions. The recent works of Ho et al. [3] and Ho et al. [4] have further expanded on Sylvester’s Theorem, offering a procedural approach to compute the representability of positive integers in the context of arithmetic progressions. In this paper, efficient algorithms to compute the number of ways to represent an odd positive integer as sums of powers of arithmetic progressions are presented.