English

Some new problems in additive combinatorics

Number Theory 2020-03-03 v9 Combinatorics

Abstract

In this paper we investigate some new problems in additive combinatorics. Our problems mainly involve permutations (or circular permutations) nn distinct numbers (or elements of an additive abelian group) a1,,ana_1,\ldots,a_n with adjacent sums ai+ai+1a_i+a_{i+1} (or differences aiai+1a_i-a_{i+1}) pairwise distinct. For an odd prime power q=2n+1>13q=2n+1>13 with q25q\not=25, we show that there is a circular permutation (a1,,an)(a_1,\ldots,a_n) of the elements of S={a2: aFq{0}}S=\{a^2:\ a\in\mathbb F_q\setminus\{0\}\} such that {a1+a2,,an1+an,an+a1}=S\{a_1+a_2,\ldots,a_{n-1}+a_n,a_n+a_1\}=S, where Fq\mathbb F_q denotes the field of order qq. For any finite subset AA of an additive torsion-free abelian group GG with A=n>3|A|=n>3, we prove that there is a numbering a1,,ana_1,\ldots,a_n of the elements of AA such that a1+2a2, a2+2a3, , an1+2an, an+2a1a_1+2a_2,\ a_2+2a_3,\ \ldots,\ a_{n-1}+2a_n,\ a_n+2a_1 are pairwise distinct. We also pose 30 open conjectures for further research.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1309.1679,
  title  = {Some new problems in additive combinatorics},
  author = {Zhi-Wei Sun},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1309.1679},
  year   = {2020}
}

Comments

19 pages

R2 v1 2026-06-22T01:22:15.167Z