English

Geometric progressions in syndetic sets

Number Theory 2019-04-30 v3 Combinatorics

Abstract

In order to investigate multiplicative structures in additively large sets, Beiglb\"{o}ck et al. raised a significant open question as to whether or not every subset of the natural numbers with bounded gaps (syndetic set) contains arbitrarily long geometric progressions. A result of Erd\H{o}s implies that syndetic sets contain a 22-term geometric progression with integer common ratio, but we still do not know if they contain such a progression with common ratio being a perfect square. In this article, we prove that for each kNk\in \mathbb{N}, a syndetic set contains 22-term geometric progressions with common ratios of the form nkr1n^kr_1 and pkr2p^kr_2, where pPp\in\mathbb{P} (the set of primes), nn is a composite number, r11(modn)r_1\equiv 1 \pmod{n}, r21(modp)r_2\equiv 1\pmod{p} and r1,r2Nr_1,r_2\in \mathbb{N}. We also show that 2-syndetic sets (sets with bounded gap two) contain infinitely many 22-term geometric progressions with their respective common ratios being perfect squares.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1808.09230,
  title  = {Geometric progressions in syndetic sets},
  author = {Bhuwanesh Rao Patil},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1808.09230},
  year   = {2019}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-23T03:46:03.964Z