English

Rainbow arithmetic progressions

Combinatorics 2016-01-12 v2

Abstract

In this paper, we investigate the anti-Ramsey (more precisely, anti-van der Waerden) properties of arithmetic progressions. For positive integers nn and kk, the expression aw([n],k)aw([n],k) denotes the smallest number of colors with which the integers {1,,n}\{1,\ldots,n\} can be colored and still guarantee there is a rainbow arithmetic progression of length kk. We establish that aw([n],3)=Θ(logn)aw([n],3)=\Theta(\log n) and aw([n],k)=n1o(1)aw([n],k)=n^{1-o(1)} for k4k\geq 4. For positive integers nn and kk, the expression aw(Zn,k)aw(Z_n,k) denotes the smallest number of colors with which elements of the cyclic group of order nn can be colored and still guarantee there is a rainbow arithmetic progression of length kk. In this setting, arithmetic progressions can "wrap around," and aw(Zn,3)aw(Z_n,3) behaves quite differently from aw([n],3)aw([n],3), depending on the divisibility of nn. As shown in [Jungi\'c et al., \textit{Combin. Probab. Comput.}, 2003], aw(Z2m,3)=3aw(Z_{2^m},3) = 3 for any positive integer mm. We establish that aw(Zn,3)aw(Z_n,3) can be computed from knowledge of aw(Zp,3)aw(Z_p,3) for all of the prime factors pp of nn. However, for k4k\geq 4, the behavior is similar to the previous case, that is, aw(Zn,k)=n1o(1)aw(Z_n,k)=n^{1-o(1)}.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1404.7232,
  title  = {Rainbow arithmetic progressions},
  author = {Steve Butler and Craig Erickson and Leslie Hogben and Kirsten Hogenson and Lucas Kramer and Richard L. Kramer and Jephian Chin-Hung Lin and Ryan R. Martin and Derrick Stolee and Nathan Warnberg and Michael Young},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1404.7232},
  year   = {2016}
}

Comments

20 pages, 2 figures, 3 tables

R2 v1 2026-06-22T04:01:18.943Z