Prove that the real-coefficient polynomial in ,
cannot be expressed as a finite sum of squares of real-coefficient polynomials in .
Solutions — 2
Solution 1
Denote the given polynomial by . By contradiction, assume there exist real-coefficient polynomials , , ..., satisfying
First, all must have degree at most 3. If some had degree , then the sum of squares of their degree homogeneous parts would be 0, implying all these parts vanish, which is a contradiction!
Thus all . By replacing each with its degree 3 homogeneous part, we may assume each is a homogeneous real-coefficient polynomial of degree 3.
Setting in (1) yields
Let . Setting in (2) gives , so for all . Thus ; similarly, setting shows . Therefore we can write , where is linear in and . Substituting into (2) and canceling gives
Setting shows , so , where . In particular, the coefficients of and in are 0, and the sum of coefficients of and is 0.
Now fix one and write . Then:
These relations can be visualized in Figure 1, where dashed boxes enclose elements summing to 0.

Figure 1
By symmetry, we also have:
In the figure, this corresponds to sums of elements along edges and diagonals being 0.
From (3), the sum of all is 0. Removing the corner triangles shows .
Then (4) implies:
Let , , , then , , .
Now, the coefficient of in is:
while has coefficient 0 for . From (1), we must have for
each . Substituting back into (3) and (4) shows , contradicting (1). Therefore,
cannot be expressed as a finite sum of squares.
Solution 2
Denote the polynomial by . By contradiction, assume can be written as a sum of squares of real-coefficient polynomials. Then there exist () with:
where each monomial in , has even degree in . Since , as
in Proof 1 we may assume are homogeneous of degrees 2 and 3 respectively, with
, .
Setting in (5) gives:
so . Thus we can write for some .
Setting in (5) and comparing coefficients of gives:
so . Thus for some and .
Using the identity:
we may assume and for . Comparing coefficients of gives:
so .
Comparing coefficients of gives:
Thus:
Setting shows for .
Comparing coefficients of gives:
Setting shows . Let for .
Comparing coefficients of gives:
Setting shows . Let for .
From , we get , so . From , we get , so .
Thus:
Setting in gives:
The inequality holds for all real only when . But then setting gives , a contradiction.
Therefore, cannot be expressed as a finite sum of squares of real-coefficient polynomials.