Related papers: Solving $a\pm b=2c$ in the elements of finite sets

We study a conjecture by Deaconescu on the solubility of finite groups with claims that if more than half of the elements in a finite group has the same order $k$, then the group is soluble. We show that the original conjecture fails by…

A finite set of real numbers is called convex if the differences between consecutive elements form a strictly increasing sequence. We show that, for any pair of convex sets $A, B\subset\mathbb R$, each of size $n^{1/2}$, the convex grid…

It is established that there exists an absolute constant $c>0$ such that for any finite set $A$ of positive real numbers $$|AA+A| \gg |A|^{\frac{3}{2}+c}.$$ On the other hand, we give an explicit construction of a finite set $A \subset…

Let $A$ be a nonempty finite set of $k$ integers. Given a subset $B$ of $A$, the sum of all elements of $B$, denoted by $s(B)$, is called the subset sum of $B$. For a nonnegative integer $\alpha$ ($\leq k$), let \[\Sigma_{\alpha}…

Fix integers $b>a\geq1$ with $g:=\gcd(a,b)$. A set $S\subseteq\mathbb{N}$ is \emph{$\{a,b\}$-multiplicative} if $ax\neq by$ for all $x,y\in S$. For all $n$, we determine an $\{a,b\}$-multiplicative set with maximum cardinality in $[n]$, and…

For any elements b,c of a number field K, let G(b,c) denote the backwards orbit of b under the map f_c: C-->C given by f_c(x)=x^2+c. We prove an upper bound on the number of elements of G(b,c) whose degree over K is at most some constant B.…

Let $p$ be an odd prime. For nontrivial proper subsets $A,B$ of $\mathbb{Z}_p$ of cardinality $s,t$, respectively, we count the number $r(A,B,B)$ of additive triples, namely elements of the form $(a, b, a+b)$ in $A \times B \times B$. For…

For given integers a,b, and j at least 1 we determine the set of integers n for which a^n-b^n is divisible by n^j. For j=1,2, this set is usually infinite; we find explicitly the exceptional cases for which a,b the set is finite. For j=2,…

Let $b \geq 2$ be an integer and $S$ be a finite non-empty set of primes not containing divisors of $b$. For any non-dense set $A \subset [0,1)$ such that $A \cap \mathbb{Q}$ is invariant under $\times b$ operation, we prove the finiteness…

For a set $A$, let $P(A)$ be the set of all finite subset sums of $A$. We prove that if a sequence $B=\{11\leq b_1<b_2<\cdots\}$ satisfies $b_2=3b_1+5$, $b_3=3b_2+2$ and $b_{n+1}=3b_n+4b_{n-1}$ for all $n\geq 3$, then there is a sequence of…

We show that there are at most two solutions in positive integers $(x,y,z)$ to the equation $a^x+b^y=c^z$ for positive integers $a$, $b$, and $c$ all greater than one, with just one exceptional case when $\gcd(a,b)=1$, and just one…

Given a large finite point set, $P\subset \mathbb R^2$, we obtain upper bounds on the number of triples of points that determine a given pair of dot products. That is, for any pair of positive real numbers, $(\alpha, \beta)$, we bound the…

It is conjectured that for any fixed relatively prime positive integers $a,b$ and $c$ all greater than 1 there is at most one solution to the equation $a^x+b^y=c^z$ in positive integers $x,y$ and $z$, except for specific cases. In this…

This paper is concerned with the problem of finding two sets of integers, $\{a_1, a_2, \ldots$, $a_m\}$ and $\{b_1, b_2, \ldots, b_n\}$, such that all the $mn$ sums $a_i+b_j, i=1, \ldots, m, j=1, \ldots, n$, are perfect squares. A method is…

We show that for any set A in a finite Abelian group G that has at least c |A|^3 solutions to a_1 + a_2 = a_3 + a_4, where a_i belong A there exist sets A' in A and L in G, |L| \ll c^{-1} log |A| such that A' is contained in Span of L and…

We present a variety of new results on finite sets A of integers for which the sumset A+A is larger than the difference set A-A, so-called MSTD (more sums than differences) sets. First we show that there is, up to affine transformation, a…

We prove that the frequency of abc equations c^n = a+b satisfying the strong abc - conjecture is phi(c^n)/2+o(phi(c^n)/2), for n going to infinity.

We consider decompositions of the real line into pairwise disjoint Borel pieces so that each piece is closed under addition. How many pieces can there be? We prove among others that the number of pieces is either at most 3 or uncountable,…

New bounds on the number of similar or directly similar copies of a pattern within a finite subset of the line or the plane are proved. The number of equilateral triangles whose vertices all lie within an $n$-point subset of the plane is…

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| <…