Related papers: Sets with few differences in abelian groups

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…

Let $A\subseteq \mathbb{Z}_p^2$ be a set of size $2p+1$ for prime $p\geq 5$. In this paper, we prove that $A\hat{+}A=\{a_1+a_2\mid a_1,a_2\in A, a_1\neq a_2\}$ has cardinality at least $4p$. This result is the first advancement in over two…

Given a set $A$ of nonnegative integers, define the sum set $$A+A = \{a_i+a_j\mid a_i,a_j\in A\}$$ and the difference set $$A-A = \{a_i-a_j\mid a_i,a_j\in A\}.$$ The set $A$ is said to be sum-dominant if $|A+A|>|A-A|$. In answering a…

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…

Let G be an additive abelian group whose finite subgroups are all cyclic. Let A_1,...,A_n (n>1) be finite subsets of G with cardinality k>0, and let b_1,...,b_n be pairwise distinct elements of G with odd order. We show that for every…

For a set $A$ of $k$ elements from an additive abelian group $G$ and a positive integer $r \leq k$, we consider the set of elements of $G$ that can be written as a sum of $h$ elements of $A$ with at least $r$ distinct elements. We denote…

A famous conjecture of Graham asserts that every set $A \subseteq \mathbb{Z}_p \setminus \{0\}$ can be ordered so that all partial sums are distinct. Although this conjecture was recently proved for sufficiently large primes by Pham and…

In this paper we discuss some of the key properties of sum-free subsets of abelian groups. Our discussion has been designed with a broader readership in mind, and is hence not overly technical. We consider answers to questions like: how…

Given a finite set $A\subseteq \mathbb{N}$, define the sum set $$A+A = \{a_i+a_j\mid a_i,a_j\in A\}$$ and the difference set $$A-A = \{a_i-a_j\mid a_i,a_j\in A\}.$$ The set $A$ is said to be sum-dominant if $|A+A|>|A-A|$. Hegarty used a…

A subset $B$ of an Abelian group $G$ is called a difference basis of $G$ if each element $g\in G$ can be written as the difference $g=a-b$ of some elements $a,b\in B$. The smallest cardinality $|B|$ of a difference basis $B\subset G$ is…

We derive some new results on the k-th barycentric Olson constants of abelian groups (mainly cyclic). This quantity, for a finite abelian (additive) group (G,+), is defined as the smallest integer l such that each subset A of G with at…

A subset $B$ of a group $G$ is called a difference basis of $G$ if each element $g\in G$ can be written as the difference $g=ab^{-1}$ of some elements $a,b\in B$. The smallest cardinality $|B|$ of a difference basis $B\subset G$ is called…

Let $A$ be a subset of the cyclic group $\mathbf{Z}/p\mathbf{Z}$ with $p$ prime. It is a well-studied problem to determine how small $|A|$ can be if there is no unique sum in $A+A$, meaning that for every two elements $a_1,a_2\in A$, there…

Let $G$ be a finite abelian group with exponent $n$. Let $\eta(G)$ denote the smallest integer $\ell$ such that every sequence over $G$ of length at least $\ell$ has a zero-sum subsequence of length at most $n$. We determine the precise…

A corollary of Kneser's theorem, one sees that any finite non-empty subset $A$ of an abelian group $G = (G,+)$ with $|A + A| \leq (2-\eps) |A|$ can be covered by at most $\frac{2}{\eps}-1$ translates of a finite group $H$ of cardinality at…

By definition, the sharp packing index $\ind_P^\sharp(A)$ of a subset $A$ of an abelian group $G$ is the smallest cardinal $\kappa$ such that for any subset $B\subset G$ of size $|B|\ge\kappa$ the family $\{b+A:b\in B\}$ is not disjoint. We…

Let A,B,S be finite subsets of an abelian group G. Suppose that the restricted sumset C={a+b: a in A, b in B, and a-b not in S} is nonempty and some c in C can be written as a+b with a in A and b in B in at most m ways. We show that if G is…

Let $G$ be an additive finite abelian group of order $n$, and let $S$ be a sequence of $n+k$ elements in $G$, where $k\geq 1$. Suppose that $S$ contains $t$ distinct elements. Let $\sum_n(S)$ denote the set that consists of all elements in…

For a finite abelian group $(G,+)$, the constant $C(G)$ is defined to be the smallest natural number $k$ such that any sequence in $G$ having length $k$ will have a subsequence of consecutive terms whose sum is zero. For a subset…

Given a finite group $G$ and positive integers $r$ and $s$, a problem of interest in algebra is determining the minimum cardinality of the product set $AB$, where $A$ and $B$ are subsets of $G$ such that $|A|=r$ and $|B|=s$. This problem…