Sums of squares of integers except for a fixed one

Abstract

In this article, we study a sum of squares of integers except for a fixed one. For any nonnegative integer $n$, we find the minimum number of squares of integers except for $n$ whose sums represent all positive integers that are represented by a sum of squares except for it. This problem could be considered as a generalization of Dubouis's result for the case when $n=0$.