Even better sums of squares over quintic and cyclotomic fields

Abstract

Abstract We classify all totally real number fields of degree at most 5 that admit a universal quadratic form with rational integer coefficients; in fact, there are none over the previously unsolved cases of quartic and quintic fields. This fully settles the lifting problem for universal forms in degrees at most 5. The main tool behind the proof is a computationally intensive classification of fields in which every multiple of 2 is the sum of squares. We further extend these results to some real cyclotomic fields of large degrees and prove Kitaoka’s conjecture for them.