Related papers: The sum-free process

Let $A$ be a finite, nonempty subset of an abelian group. We show that if every element of $A$ is a sum of two other elements, then $A$ has a nonempty zero-sum subset. That is, a (finite, nonempty) sum-full subset of an abelian group is not…

We introduce and study a novel semi-random multigraph process, described as follows. The process starts with an empty graph on $n$ vertices. In every round of the process, one vertex $v$ of the graph is picked uniformly at random and…

For a positive integer $n$, let $[n]$ denote $\{1, \ldots, n\}$. For a 2-dimensional integer lattice point $\mathbf{b}$ and positive integers $k\geq 2$ and $n$, a \textit{$k$-sum $\mathbf{b}$-free set} of $[n]\times [n]$ is a subset $S$ of…

Let A be a subset of an abelian group G. We say that A is sum-free if there do not exist x,y and z in A satisfying x + y = z. We determine, for any G, the cardinality of the largest sum-free subset of G. This equals c(G)|G| where c(G) is a…

The C_\ell-free process starts with the empty graph on n vertices and adds edges chosen uniformly at random, one at a time, subject to the condition that no copy of C_\ell is created. For every $\ell \geq 4$ we show that, with high…

Let $s(n):= \sum_{d\mid n,~d<n} d$ denote the sum of the proper divisors of $n$. It is natural to conjecture that for each integer $k\ge 2$, the equivalence \[ \text{$n$ is $k$th powerfree} \Longleftrightarrow \text{$s(n)$ is $k$th…

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…

A set $A\subset \mathbb{F}_p^n$ is sum-free if $A+A$ does not intersect $A$. If $p\equiv 2 \mod 3$, the maximal size of a sum-free in $\mathbb{F}_p^n$ is known to be $(p^n+p^{n-1})/3$. We show that if a sum-free set $A\subset…

Let $G$ be a finite abelian group, and let $S$ be a sequence over $G$. Let $f(S)$ denote the number of elements in $G$ which can be expressed as the sum over a nonempty subsequence of $S$. In this paper, we determine all the sequences $S$…

Let $G$ be an additive abelian group and $S\subset G$ a subset. Let $\Sigma(S)$ denote the set of group elements which can be expressed as a sum of a nonempty subset of $S$. We say $S$ is zero-sum free if $0 \not\in \Sigma(S)$. It was…

A function from $\Bbb F_{2^n}$ to $\Bbb F_{2^n}$ is said to be {\em $k$th order sum-free} if the sum of its values over each $k$-dimensional $\Bbb F_2$-affine subspace of $\Bbb F_{2^n}$ is nonzero. This notion was recently introduced by C.…

Our main result, Theorem 2.5, shows the existence of a vast infinity of subset sum problems solvable in polynomial time. The only proof we have of this result uses the ZFC independent Jump Free Theorem of Harvey Friedman, thus putting…

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…

For an interval [1,N] in the natural numbers, investigating subsets S of [1,N] such that |{(x,y) in S^2:x+y in S}|=0, known as sum-free sets, has attracted considerable attention. In this paper, we define r(S):=|{(x,y) in S^2: x+y in S}|…

In 1990, Alon and Kleitman proposed an argument for the sum-free subset problem: every set of n nonzero elements of a finite Abelian group contains a sum-free subset A of size |A|>\frac{2}{7}n. In this note, we show that the argument…

We consider sets of positive integers containing no sum of two elements in the set and also no product of two elements. We show that the upper density of such a set is strictly smaller than 1/2 and that this is best possible. Further, we…

We consider the triangle-free process: given an integer n, start by taking a uniformly random ordering of the edges of the complete n-vertex graph K_n. Then, traverse the ordered edges and add each traversed edge to an (initially empty)…

We estimate the sizes of the sumset A + A and the productset A $\cdot$ A in the special case that A = S (x, y), the set of positive integers n less than or equal to x, free of prime factors exceeding y.

Let (G, +) be an abelian group. A subset of G is sumfree if it contains no elements x, y, z such that x +y = z. We extend this concept by introducing the Schur degree of a subset of G, where Schur degree 1 corresponds to sumfree. The…

Cameron and Erd\H{o}s raised the question of how many maximal sum-free sets there are in $\{1, \dots , n\}$, giving a lower bound of $2^{\lfloor n/4 \rfloor }$. In this paper we prove that there are in fact at most $2^{(1/4+o(1))n}$ maximal…