Sets of unit fractions without two members whose average is a unit fraction
Number Theory
2026-07-16 v1 Combinatorics
Abstract
We show that there is a constant such that, for all sufficiently large , there is a subset of size such that for any two distinct elements in , the average of and is not a unit fraction, negatively answering a question of Erd\H{o}s and Graham. This also gives the best known lower bounds on the maximum size of a set of unit fractions without non-trivial three-term arithmetic progressions.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2607.15419,
title = {Sets of unit fractions without two members whose average is a unit fraction},
author = {Will Sawin},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2607.15419},
year = {2026}
}