Equal Sums of Like Powers with Minimum Number of Terms

Abstract

This paper is concerned with the diophantine system, $\sum_{i=1}^{s_1} x_i^r=\sum_{i=1}^{s_2} y_i^r,\, r=1,\,2,\,\ldots,\,k, $ where $s_1$ and $s_2$ are integers such that the total number of terms on both sides, that is, $s_1+s_2,$ is as small as possible. We define $\beta(k)$ to be the minimum value of $s_1+s_2$ for which there exists a nontrivial solution of this diophantine system. We find nontrivial integer solutions of this diophantine system when $k < 6$, and thereby show that $\beta(2) =4,\;\, \beta(3) = 6,\;\, 7 \leq \beta(4) \leq 8$ and $8 \leq \beta(5) \leq 10$.