English

Multiply partition regular matrices

Combinatorics 2013-06-04 v1

Abstract

Let AA be a finite matrix with rational entries. We say that AA is {\it doubly image partition regular\/} if whenever the set N{\mathbb N} of positive integers is finitely coloured, there exists x\vec x such that the entries of AxA\vec x are all the same colour (or {\it monochromatic\/}) and also, the entries of x\vec x are monochromatic. Which matrices are doubly image partition regular? More generally, we say that a pair of matrices (A,B)(A,B), where AA and BB have the same number of rows, is {\it doubly kernel partition regular\/} if whenever N{\mathbb N} is finitely coloured, there exist vectors x\vec x and y\vec y, each monochromatic, such that Ax+By=0A \vec x + B \vec y = 0. There is an obvious sufficient condition for the pair (A,B)(A,B) to be doubly kernel partition regular, namely that there exists a positive rational cc such that the matrix M=(AcB)M=(\begin{array}{ccccc}A&cB\end{array}) is kernel partition regular. (That is, whenever N{\mathbb N} is finitely coloured, there exists monochromatic x\vec x such that Mx=0M \vec x=\vec 0.) Our aim in this paper is to show that this sufficient condition is also necessary. As a consequence we have that a matrix AA is doubly image partition regular if and only if there is a positive rational cc such that the matrix (AcI)(\begin{array}{lr}A&cI\end{array}) is kernel partition regular, where II is the identity matrix of the appropriate size. We also prove extensions to the case of several matrices.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1306.0438,
  title  = {Multiply partition regular matrices},
  author = {Dennis Davenport and Neil Hindman and Imre Leader and Dona Strauss},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1306.0438},
  year   = {2013}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-22T00:27:04.279Z