English

On density analogs of Hindman's finite sums theorem

Dynamical Systems 2025-10-22 v1 Combinatorics Number Theory

Abstract

For any set AA of natural numbers with positive upper Banach density, we show the existence of an infinite set BB and sequences (tk)kN,(sk)kN(t_k)_{k\in \mathbb{N}}, (s_k)_{k\in \mathbb{N}} of natural numbers such that {nFn:FB+sk,1Fk}Atk\left\{ \sum_{n \in F}n : F \subset B + s_k, 1 \leq |F| \leq k \right\}\subset A-t_k, for every kNk\in \mathbb{N}. This strengthens the density finite sums theorem of Kra, Moreira, Richter, and Robertson. We further show, given such a set AA, the existence of an infinite set BB and a sequence (tk)kN(t_k)_{k\in \mathbb{N}} of natural numbers such that {nFn:FB,F=k}Atk\left\{ \sum_{n \in F}n : F \subset B, |F| = k \right\}\subset A-t_k, for every kNk\in \mathbb{N}. As a corollary, we obtain a sequence (Bn)nN(B_n)_{n\in \mathbb{N}} of infinite sets of natural numbers such that B1++BkAB_1+\cdots +B_k \subset A, for every kNk\in \mathbb{N}. We also establish the optimality of our main theorems by providing counterexamples to potential further generalizations, and thereby addressing questions of the aforementioned authors in the context of density analogs to Hindman's finite sums theorem.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2510.18788,
  title  = {On density analogs of Hindman's finite sums theorem},
  author = {Felipe Hernández and Ioannis Kousek and Tristán Radić},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2510.18788},
  year   = {2025}
}

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