Universal quaternary mixed sums involving generalized 3-, 4-, 5- and 8-gonal numbers via products of Ramanujan's theta functions

Abstract: Generalized $m$-gonal numbers are those $p_m(x)= [ (m - 2)x^2 - (m - 4)x ]/2 $ where $x$ and $m$ are integers with $m \geq 3$. If any nonnegative integer can be written in the form $ap_r(h)+bp_s(l)+cp_t(m)+dp_u(n)$, where $a,b,c,d$ are positive integers, then we call $ap_r(h)+bp_s(l)+cp_t(m)+dp_u(n)$ a universal quaternary sum. In this paper, we determine the universality of many quaternary sums when $r,s,t,u \in {3,4,5,8}$, using the theory of Ramanujan's theta function identities