English

Two local zero-sum problems

Number Theory 2026-07-13 v1 Combinatorics

Abstract

In the present paper, we investigate two local zero-sum problems. Let n,k2n,k\ge 2. We denote by D(n,nk)\mathsf{D}^*(n,nk) (resp. η(n,nk)\eta^{*}(n,nk)) the smallest positive integer \ell (if exists) such that, from any given \ell integers not divisible by nn, one can select some (resp. at most nn) of them whose sum is divisible by nn but not by nknk. We prove that both D(n,nk)\mathsf{D}^*(n,nk) and η(n,nk)\eta^{*}(n,nk) are equal to 2n12n-1 if rad(n)rad(k)\mathrm{rad}(n) \mid \mathrm{rad}(k) and infinite otherwise. The corresponding inverse problem is also determined. We denote by Dn×\mathsf{D}_n^{\times} (resp. ηn×\eta_n^{\times}) the smallest positive integer \ell such that, from any given \ell integers coprime to nn, one can select some (resp. at most nn) of them whose sum σ\sigma satisfies gcd(σ,n2)=n\gcd(\sigma, n^2)=n. We prove that Dn×=ηn×=2n1\mathsf{D}_n^{\times}=\eta_n^{\times}=2n-1 if nn is a prime power, and determine its inverse problem.

Cite

@article{arxiv.2607.11313,
  title  = {Two local zero-sum problems},
  author = {Gao Weidong and Jiang Xiao and Mu Yucen},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2607.11313},
  year   = {2026}
}