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Claim. M. Sekanina, Notes on the factorisation of infinite cyclic groups (in Russian), Czechoslovak Math. J. 9 (84) (1959), no. 4, 485-495. Remark 1.7 (p. 490) proves that the set of squares {n2:n≥0}\{n^2:n\ge0\}, the full image of f(X)=X2f(X)=X^2, is not a direct factor of Z\mathbb Z: there is no A⊆ZA\subseteq\mathbb Z such that every integer is uniquely a+n2a+n^2 with a∈Aa\in A and n≥0n\ge0. The proof uses that x2−y2=kx^2-y^2=k is solvable exactly when k≢2(mod4)k\not\equiv2\pmod 4. The same page leaves the higher powers {nk:n≥0}\{n^k:n\ge0\}, k>2k>2, unresolved, the question that the formal-conjectures monomial variant of Problem 477 records. Erdős and Graham cite the paper in the problem itself. The journal and Crossref records give no issue month, so the page carries 1 January 1959.

Covers. f(X)=X2f(X)=X^2: the squares admit no tiling complement.

Depends on. Nothing in this wiki; the claim is the cited paper's remark.

Acceptance. Refereed: Czechoslovak Mathematical Journal 9 (1959).