English

Solution to a conjecture of Alon, Dębski, Grytczuk and Przybyło on fixed-cardinality arithmetic progressions

Combinatorics 2026-07-07 v1

Abstract

Fix a positive integer nn, and put Bd={d,2d,,nd}B_d=\{d,2d,\ldots,nd\}. Let Mk(n)M_k(n) be the least integer mm for which one translate of each of B1,,BkB_1,\ldots,B_k can be placed pairwise disjointly in [m][m]. We prove that, for every \eps(0,1)\eps\in(0,1) and all sufficiently large kk, one has Mk(n)n(1+\eps)kM_k(n)\le n\lceil(1+\eps)k\rceil. Since the trivial counting bound gives Mk(n)nkM_k(n)\ge nk, it follows that Mk(n)=(1+o(1))nkM_k(n)=(1+o(1))nk for every fixed nn. This confirms a conjecture of Alon, D\k{e}bski, Grytczuk and Przyby\l{}o on prescribed-difference packings of fixed-cardinality arithmetic progressions.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2607.06113,
  title  = {Solution to a conjecture of Alon, Dębski, Grytczuk and Przybyło on fixed-cardinality arithmetic progressions},
  author = {Yaping Mao and Zhao Wang and Meiqin Wei and Gang Yang},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2607.06113},
  year   = {2026}
}