The maximum size of sumsets in finite cyclic groups
Abstract
Let be a nonempty finite subset of an additive abelian group . Given a nonnegative integer , the -fold sumset is the set of all sums of elements of , and the restricted -fold sumset is the set of all sums of distinct elements of . The union of restricted sumsets , where , is denoted by . For fixed positive integers and , the maximum size of the sumset of a set with elements is denoted by . In other words, . Analogous quantities can be defined for the sumsets and . Optimal upper bounds are known for these quantities. If is a finite cyclic group of order , then each of these quantities agrees with the optimal upper bound, except in many cases. Bajnok posed the problem of determining all positive integers , , and for which the value of the function is strictly less than the optimal upper bound. He posed similar problems for quantities related to the sumsets and . We prove that, for any positive integer , there are infinitely many positive integers and such that is strictly less than the optimal upper bound. We also prove similar results for quantities related to the sumsets and also. These results provide the partial solutions to the problems posed by Bajnok.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2508.13125,
title = {The maximum size of sumsets in finite cyclic groups},
author = {Vivekanand Goswami and Raj Kumar Mistri},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2508.13125},
year = {2025}
}
Comments
15 pages