Sums of squares and triangular numbers

Hershel M. Farkas1
1Institute of Mathematics The Hebrew University Jerusalem

Abstract

In this note we use the theory of theta functions to discover formulas for the number of representations of N as a sum of three squares and for the number of representations of N as a sum of three triangular numbers. We discover various new relations between these functions and short, motivated proofs of well known formulas of related combinatorial and number-theoretic interest.