English

Zero-sum Analogues of van der Waerden's Theorem on Arithmetic Progressions

Combinatorics 2018-02-12 v1

Abstract

Let rr and kk be positive integers with rkr \mid k. Denote by wz(k;r)w_{\mathrm{\mathfrak{z}}}(k;r) the minimum integer such that every coloring χ:[1,wz(k;r)]{0,1,,r1}\chi:[1,w_{\mathrm{\mathfrak{z}}}(k;r)] \rightarrow \{0,1,\dots,r-1\} admits a kk-term arithmetic progression a,a+d,,a+(k1)da,a+d,\dots,a+(k-1)d with j=0k1χ(a+jd)0(modr)\sum_{j=0}^{k-1} \chi(a+jd) \equiv 0 \,(\mathrm{mod }\,r). We investigate these numbers as well as a "mixed" monochromatic/zero-sum analogue. We also present an interesting reciprocity between the van der Waerden numbers and wz(k;r)w_{\mathrm{\mathfrak{z}}}(k;r).

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1802.03387,
  title  = {Zero-sum Analogues of van der Waerden's Theorem on Arithmetic Progressions},
  author = {Aaron Robertson},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1802.03387},
  year   = {2018}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-23T00:17:23.587Z