Carries and the arithmetic progression structure of sets
Abstract
If we want to represent integers in base , we need a set of digits, which needs to be a complete set of residues modulo . When adding two integers with last digits , we find the unique such that mod , and call the carry. Carries occur also when addition is done modulo , with chosen as a set of coset representatives for the cyclic group . It is a natural to look for sets which minimize the number of different carries. In a recent paper, Diaconis, Shao and Soundararajan proved that, when , prime, the only set which induces two distinct carries, i. e. with for some , is the arithmetic progression , up to certain linear transformations. We present a generalization of the result above to the case of generic modulus , and show how this is connected to the uniqueness of the representation of sets as a minimal number of arithmetic progression of same difference.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1506.08869,
title = {Carries and the arithmetic progression structure of sets},
author = {Francesco Monopoli and Imre Z. Ruzsa},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1506.08869},
year = {2015}
}