English

On a subset sums problem of Chen and Wu

Number Theory 2020-05-20 v1

Abstract

For a set AA, let P(A)P(A) be the set of all finite subset sums of AA. We prove that if a sequence B={11b1<b2<}B=\{11\leq b_1<b_2<\cdots\} satisfies b2=3b1+5b_2=3b_1+5, b3=3b2+2b_3=3b_2+2 and bn+1=3bn+4bn1b_{n+1}=3b_n+4b_{n-1} for all n3n\geq 3, then there is a sequence of positive integers A={a1<a2<}A=\{a_1<a_2<\cdots\} such that P(A)=NBP(A)=\mathbb{N}\setminus B. This result shows that the answer to the problem of Chen and Wu [`The inverse problem on subset sums', European. J. Combin. 34(2013), 841-845] is negative.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2005.09201,
  title  = {On a subset sums problem of Chen and Wu},
  author = {Min Tang and Hongwei Xu},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2005.09201},
  year   = {2020}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-23T15:38:57.254Z