Related papers: On a sumset problem for integers

We give a characterization of all pairs $(k,n)$ of positive integers for which the ratio $$ \frac{1^k-2^k+3^k-\dots+(-1)^{n+1} n^k}{1^k-2^k+3^k-\dots+(-1)^{n}(n-1)^k} $$ of two consecutive alternating power sums is an integer.

Let $n$ be a positive integer, and let $A$ be a set of $k\ge 2n-1$ integers. For the restricted sumset $$ S_n(A)=\{a_1+\cdots +a_n:\ a_1,\ldots,a_n\in A,\ \text{and}\ a_i^2\neq a_j^2\ \text{for} \ 1\le i<j\le n\}, $$ by a 2002 result of Liu…

Let b be an odd integer such that b=+/-1 (mod 8) and let q be a prime with primitive root 2 such that q does not divide b. We show that if (p(k)) is a sequence of odd primes, with 0<=k<=q-2 such that p(k)=2p(k-1)+b for all 1<=k<=q-2, then…

We present a novel conjecture concerning the additive representation of natural numbers using prime powers. Based on extensive computational verification, we conjecture that every integer n > 23 can be expressed as a sum of at most five…

Let $1<c<d$ be two relatively prime integers, $g_{c,d}=cd-c-d$ and $\mathbb{P}$ is the set of primes. For any given integer $k \geq 1$, we prove that $$\#\left\{p^k\le g_{c,d}:p\in \mathbb{P}, ~p^k=cx+dy,~x,y\in \mathbb{Z}_{\geqslant0}…

Pilz's conjecture states that for any finite set $A=\{a_1,a_2,\dots,a_k\}$ of positive integers and positive integer $n$ in the union of the sets $\{a_1,2a_1,\dots,na_1\},\dots, \{a_k,2a_k,\dots,na_k\}$ (considered as a multiset) at least…

In its usual form, Freiman's 3k-4 theorem states that if A and B are subsets of the integers of size k with small sumset (of size close to 2k) then they are very close to arithmetic progressions. Our aim in this paper is to strengthen this…

Let A be a finite set of integers. We prove that if |A| is at least 2 and |A+A| is 3|A|-3, then one of the following is true: 1. A is a bi-arithmetic progression; 2. A+A contains an arithmetic progression of length 2|A|-1; 3. |A| is 6 and A…

For n=1,2,3,... let p_n be the n-th prime. We mainly show that p_n>n+sum_{k=1}^n p_k/k for all n>124, and sum_{k=1}^n kp_k<n^2p_n/3 for all n>30.

Let~$A$ be a set of nonnegative integers. Let~$(h A)^{(t)}$ be the set of all integers in the sumset~$hA$ that have at least~$t$ representations as a sum of~$h$ elements of~$A$. In this paper, we prove that, if~$k \geq 2$,…

We study divisibility properties of certain sums and alternating sums involving binomial coefficients and powers of integers. For example, we prove that for all positive integers $n_1,..., n_m$, $n_{m+1}=n_1$, and any nonnegative integer…

Let $G(k)$ denote the least number $s$ having the property that every sufficiently large natural number is the sum of at most $s$ positive integral $k$-th powers. Then for all $k\in \mathbb N$, one has \[ G(k)\le \lceil k(\log…

We show that for any prime prime $p\not=2$ $$\sum_{k=1}^{p-1} {(-1)^k\over k}{-{1\over 2} \choose k} \equiv -\sum_{k=1}^{(p-1)/2}{1\over k} \pmod{p^3}$$ by expressing the l.h.s. as a combination of alternating multiple harmonic sums.

We determine all triples $(a,b,n)$ of positive integers such that $a$ and $b$ are relatively prime and $n^k$ divides $a^n + b^n$ (respectively, $a^n - b^n$), when $k$ is the maximum of $a$ and $b$ (in fact, we answer a slightly more general…

Let $p$ be a prime and ${\mathfrak P}_p$ the set of positive integers which are prime to $p$. Recently, Wang and Cai proved that for every positive integer $r$ and prime $p>2$ $$ \sum_{\substack{i+j+k=p^r\\ i,j,k\in{\mathfrak P}_p}}…

Suppose that $k\geq 2$ and $A$ is a non-empty subset of a finite abelian group $G$ with $|G|>1$. Then the cardinality of the restricted sumset $$ k^\wedge A:=\{a_1+\cdots+a_k:\,a_1,\ldots,a_k\in A,\ a_i\neq a_j\text{ for }i\neq j\} $$ is at…

For each odd prime power q, and each integer k, we determine the sum of the k-th powers of all elements x in F_q for which both x and x+1 are squares in F_q^*. We also solve the analogous problem when one or both of x and x+1 is a…

Let $A, B$ be polynomial rings over a field $k$, and $I\subseteq A, J\subseteq B$ proper homogeneous ideals. We analyze the associated primes of powers of $I+J\subseteq A\otimes_k B$ given the data on the summands. The associated primes of…

A conjecture of N. Terai states that for any integer $k>1$, the equation $x^2+(2k-1)^y =k^z$ has only one solution, namely, $(x, y, z) = (k-1, 1, 2).$ Using the structure of class groups of binary quadratic forms, we prove the conjecture…

Let $m$ and $n>0$ be integers. Suppose that $p$ is a prime dividing $m-4$ but not dividing $m$. We show that $\nu_p(\sum_{k=0}^{n-1}\frac{\binom{2k}k}{m^k})$ and $\nu_p(\sum_{k=0}^{n-1}\binom{n-1}{k}(-1)^k\frac{\binom{2k}k}{m^k})$ are at…