Related papers: The structure of maximal zero-sum free Sequences
In this paper we study sum-free subsets of the set $\{1,...,n\}$, that is, subsets of the first $n$ positive integers which contain no solution to the equation $x + y = z$. Cameron and Erd\H{o}s conjectured in 1990 that the number of such…
We introduce and analyze a natural game formulated as follows. In this one-person game, the player is given a random permutation $A=(a_1,\dots, a_n)$ of a multiset $M$ of $n$ reals that sum up to $0$, where each of the $n!$ permutation…
A subset of an abelian group is {\em sequenceable} if there is an ordering $(x_1, \ldots, x_k)$ of its elements such that the partial sums $(y_0, y_1, \ldots, y_k)$, given by $y_0 = 0$ and $y_i = \sum_{j=1}^i x_i$ for $1 \leq i \leq k$, are…
In this paper we consider the problem of encoding data into \textit{repeat-free} sequences in which sequences are imposed to contain any $k$-tuple at most once (for predefined $k$). First, the capacity of the repeat-free constraint are…
For any positive integers l and m, a set of integers is said to be (weakly) l-sum-free modulo m if it contains no (pairwise distinct) elements $x_1,x_2,...,x_l,y$ satisfying the congruence $x_1+\...+x_l\equiv y\bmod{m}$. It is proved that,…
Let $\mathcal{S}$ be a finite cyclic semigroup written additively. An element $e$ of $\mathcal{S}$ is said to be idempotent if $e+e=e$. A sequence $T$ over $\mathcal{S}$ is called {\sl idempotent-sum free} provided that no idempotent of…
We consider the problem of sequencing a set of positive numbers. We try to find the optimal sequence to maximize the variance of its partial sums. The optimal sequence is shown to have a beautiful structure. It is interesting to note that…
Erd\H{o}s showed that every set of $n$ positive integers contains a subset of size at least $n/(k+1)$ containing no solutions to $x_1 + \cdots + x_k = y$. We prove that the constant $1/(k+1)$ here is best possible by showing that if $(F_m)$…
Cameron introduced a bijection between the set of sum-free sets and the set of all zero-one sequences. In this paper, we study the sum-free sets of natural numbers corresponding to certain zero-one sequences which contain the Cantor-like…
Let $G$ be an abelian group of finite order $n$, and let $h$ be a positive integer. A subset $A$ of $G$ is called {\em weakly $h$-incomplete}, if not every element of $G$ can be written as the sum of $h$ distinct elements of $A$; in…
A sequence of elements of a finite group G is called a zero-sum sequence if it sums to the identity of G. The study of zero-sum sequences has a long history with many important applications in number theory and group theory. In 1989…
A finite subset of the natural numbers is weak-Schreier if $\min S \ge |S|$, strong-Schreier if $\min S>|S|$, and maximal if $\min S = |S|$. Let $M_n$ be the number of weak-Schreier sets with $n$ being the largest element and $(F_n)_{n\geq…
Let $G$ be a finite cyclic group. Every sequence $S$ of length $l$ over $G$ can be written in the form $S=(n_1g)\cdot\ldots\cdot(n_lg)$ where $g\in G$ and $n_1, \ldots, n_l\in[1, \ord(g)]$, and the index $\ind(S)$ of $S$ is defined to be…
In this paper, we are interested in a generalization of the notion of sum-free sets. We address a conjecture first made in the 90s by Chung and Goldwasser. Recently, after some computer checks, this conjecture was formulated again by…
The Minkowski sum of two subsets $A$ and $B$ of a finite abelian group $G$ is defined as all pairwise sums of elements of $A$ and $B$: $A + B = \{ a + b : a \in A, b \in B \}$. The largest size of a $(k, \ell)$-sum-free set in $G$ has been…
Let $G$ be a finite cyclic group. Every sequence $S$ of length $l$ over $G$ can be written in the form $S=(x_1g)\cdot\ldots\cdot(x_lg)$ where $g\in G$ and $x_1, \ldots, x_l\in[1, \ord(g)]$, and the index $\ind(S)$ of $S$ is defined to be…
This paper discusses the question of how many non-empty subsets of the set $[n] = \{ 1, 2, ..., n\}$ we can choose so that no chosen subset is the union of some other chosen subsets. Let $M(n)$ be the maximum number of subsets we can…
Let $A$ be a subset of a finite field $\mathbb{F}$. When $\mathbb{F}$ has prime order, we show that there is an absolute constant $c > 0$ such that, if $A$ is both sum-free and equal to the set of its multiplicative inverses, then $|A| <…
Fix a positive real number $\theta$. The natural numbers $m$ with largest square-free divisor not exceeding $m^\theta$ form a set $\mathscr{A}$, say. It is shown that whenever $\theta>1/2$ then all large natural numbers $n$ are the sum of…
We consider sums of the form \[\sum_{j=0}^{n-1}F_1(a_1n+b_1j+c_1)F_2(a_2n+b_2j+c_2)... F_k(a_kn+b_kj+c_k),\] in which each $\{F_i(n)\}$ is a sequence that satisfies a linear recurrence of degree $D(i)<\infty$, with constant coefficients. We…