UPDATE__ Suppose l is 7 mod 8; consider the vectors W in Z^3 with(W,W)=2l. There is a group of order 48 operating on the set of such W by permutation and sign change of co-ordinates; the group operates without fixed points. So if there are 12h such W there are h/4 orbits under the group action.

----Ira Gessel's calculations, carried out for l<1500, indicate that there is an involution, O-->O' on the set of orbits, which has the following property. Let O be any of the (h/4) orbits and (r1,r2,r3) be a representative of O with r1 even (so that r2 and r3 are odd).Then if (s1,s2,s3) is a representative of O', we have the explicit identity C((r1)/2,(r1)/2,(r2+r3)/2,(r2-r3)/2)+C(s1,s2,s3)=C.

----But to know what these conjectured(but true beyond possibility of doubt) equations are for l>1500, we need to describe the involution. Franz Lemmermeyer suggested that the involution comes from an involution on a set of equivalence classes of quadratic forms ofdiscriminant -8l. This is surely the case; I'll explain what the involution on the forms is, and how to transfer it to the orbits.

----Consider positive quadratic forms rx^2+2sxy+ty^2 with s^2-rt=-2l. Gauss showed that these fall in exactly h equivalence classes under the action of SL_2(Z), where 12h is the number of W with (W,W)=2l; we'll be interested in GL_2 equivalence however. Since rt=2l+s^2,we find that mod 16, rt is 2,7,14 or 15. This can be used to show that one of the following possibilities must occur:

a.--- Every non-zero n represented by the form is the product of an integer that is 1 or 7 mod 8 by a power of 2.

b.---Every non-zero n represented by the form is the product of an integer that is 3 or 5 mod 8 by a power of 2.

----In the first case we say that the form is in the principal genus, while in the second that it is in the non-principal genus. There are (h/4) GL_2 classes in the non-principal genus. Furthermore there is an involution on this set of classes taking the class of rx^2+2sxy+2ty^2 to the class of 2rx^2+2sxy+ty^2. I'll call this involution "composition with 2x^2+ly^2".

----I now describe a map from the set of (h/4) orbits to the set of (h/4) classes. The map can be shown to be onto, and so is bijective. When we transfer composition with 2x^2+ly^2 to the set of orbits, we get our desired involution; one which is in complete accord with Gessel's calculations. Suppose (W,W)=2l. Let W# consist of all elements of Z^3 orthogonal to W. We attach to W the class of the form (xU+yV,xU+yV), where U and V are a basis of W#. This class is evidently independent of the choice of basis; one can show that it consists of forms of discriminant -8l and lies in the non-principal genus. This gives the desired map from orbits to classes of forms; as I've indicated it is bijective.

EXAMPLE____Take l=1567, and W=(3,25,50) so that (W,W)=2l. Let O be the orbit of W. I'll calculate O', and write down the conjectured equations coming from O and O'. A basis for W# consists of U=(0,2,-1) and V=(25,1,-2). Then (U,U)=5, (U,V)=4, (V,V)=630, and a form attached to O is 5x^2+8xy+630y^2. Composition with 2x^2+1567y^2 takes this to 10x^2+8xy+315y^2. So we seek U' and V' with (U',U')=10, (U',V')=4, and (V',V')=315. Take U'=(3,1,0). A little experimenting, writing 315 as a sum of 3 squares, shows that we should take V'=(5,-11,13). Then W' which is orthogonal to U' and V' can be taken to be their vector product (13,-39,-38). So O' is the orbit of (13,38,39). And one of our predicted expressions for C is C(25,25,11,14)+C(13,38,39), while another is C(19,19,13,26)+C(3,25,50).

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(3) When l=31 I think that C=C(3,3,2,3)+C(2,5,8C=C(3,3,2,3)+C(2,3,7) (In my original post I wrote C(2,5,8), but C(2,3,7)=C(2,5,8))

EDIT: Let V be the space spanned by the C(r1,r2,r3,r4) with r1=r2 and l dividing the sum of the squares of r1,r2,r3 and r4, together with the C(s1,s2,s3) with l dividing the sum of the squares of s1,s2 and s3. When l=7 mod 16 I can use Jacobi's 4-square theorem to show that C is in V. It's then possible to prove identities like those of (2) above by exploiting thegeometry of of Spec R where R is the subring of Z/2[[x]] generated by the theta series [j].

-----One can show that an element of V has at most l(l-1)(l+1)/6 poles, counted with multiplicity, on the obvious projective completion of this curve. So if it has a zero of large enough order at the origin, it vanishes. I applied this technique for various l congruent to 7 mod 16; the results boggled my mind. It's only necessary to use 2 terms in the power series expansion of each theta series. When l=23, I got (2) above.

When l=71, I found that C=C(3,3,2,7)+C(5,6,9)

When l=103, I got 5 different expressions for C! Explicitly:

a----C(3,3,6,7)+C(2,9,11)

b----C(7,7,1,2)+C(5,9,10)

c----C(5,5,2,7)+C(1,3,14)

d----C(3,3,2,9)+C(6,7,11)

e----C(1,1,1,10)+C(1,6,13)

It seems possible to me that in general, for l=7 mod 8, one gets h/4 formulae of thissort where h is the class-number of Q(Root(-2l)). I've discussed the case l=31 in the comment to ARupinski. When l=47, I can show that C(3,3,2,5)+C(2,3,9)=C(1,1,3,6)+C(3,6,7).So if (4) above holds, there's a second formula for C in this case, just as in the case l=31. But I can't prove that C is in V when l=15 mod 16.

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# More questions involving characteristic 2 theta series identities

In my answer to my earlier question, "Existence of certain identities involving characteristic 2 thetas", I established some curious identities when the thetas have prime "level" congruent to 1 mod 4 or to 3 mod 8. This question concerns the case when the level is 7 mod 8.

I reprise notation from earlier questions. l is an odd prime and [j] is the sum of the x^(n^2), where n runs over the integers congruent to j mod l; we view the "theta series" [j] as elements of Z/2[[x]]. F is the power series x+x^9+x^25+x^49+x^81..., G=F(x^l) and H=G(x^l). My identities involve G,H and the various [j].

There is evidently a unique C in Z/2[[x]], having constant term 0, with C^2+C=G+H. I showed that when l is 1 mod 4 or 3 mod 8 (or when l=7), then C can be written explicitly as a polynomial in the [j]. Here is what the computer suggests when l=7 mod 8 and is < 50. First some notation. If (r,s,t) is a triple of integers, we define C(r,s,t) to be the sum of the power series [rj][sj][tj] where j runs from 1 to (l-1)/2. Define C(r,s,t,u) similarly. (When l is 3 mod 8, I showed that C is C(1,1,t) where t^2 is congruent to -2 mod l).

(1) When l=7, I can show that C=C(1,1,1,2)+C(1,2,3)

(2) When l=23 I think that C=C(3,3,1,2)+C(1,3,6)

(3) When l=31 I think that C=C(3,3,2,3)+C(2,5,8)

(4) When l=47 I think that C=C(3,3,2,5)+C(2,3,9)

(Note that the sum of the squares of 3,3,2 and 5 is 47, etc.)

QUESTION 1: Can one establish the truth of (2),(3) and (4)? Kevin Buzzard explained to me that it's enough to show that the power series expansions agree up to a certain exponent, but I'm not sure what that exponent is, and I doubt that I have the computer power.

QUESTION 2: Are there identities like those above for l>50? And if so, what are these identities explicitly?