English

Carries and the arithmetic progression structure of sets

Number Theory 2015-07-01 v1

Abstract

If we want to represent integers in base mm, we need a set AA of digits, which needs to be a complete set of residues modulo mm. When adding two integers with last digits a1,a2Aa_1, a_2 \in A, we find the unique aAa \in A such that a1+a2aa_1 + a_2 \equiv a mod mm, and call (a1+a2a)/m(a_1 + a_2 -a)/m the carry. Carries occur also when addition is done modulo m2m^2, with AA chosen as a set of coset representatives for the cyclic group Z/mZZ/m2Z\mathbb{Z}/m \mathbb{Z} \subseteq \mathbb{Z}/m^2\mathbb{Z}. It is a natural to look for sets AA which minimize the number of different carries. In a recent paper, Diaconis, Shao and Soundararajan proved that, when m=pm=p, pp prime, the only set AA which induces two distinct carries, i. e. with A+A{x,y}+AA+A \subseteq \{ x, y \}+A for some x,yZ/p2Zx, y \in \mathbb{Z}/p^2\mathbb{Z}, is the arithmetic progression [0,p1][0, p-1], up to certain linear transformations. We present a generalization of the result above to the case of generic modulus m2m^2, and show how this is connected to the uniqueness of the representation of sets as a minimal number of arithmetic progression of same difference.

Keywords

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}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-22T10:02:37.454Z