Related papers: A combinatorial problem and numerical semigroups

Let $A$ be a set of positive integers. We define a positive integer $n$ as an $A$-practical number if every positive integer from the set $\left\{1,\ldots ,\sum_{d\in A, d\mid n}d\right\}$ can be written as a sum of distinct divisors of $n$…

In this paper, by using the arithmetic theory of ternary quadratic forms, we study some refinements on Lagrange's four-square theorem. For example, given positive integers $a,b$ satisfying some algebraic conditions and a positive integer…

A (v,b,r,k) combinatorial configuration is a (r,k)-biregular bipartite graph with v vertices on the left and b vertices on the right and with no cycle of length 4. Combinatorial configurations have become very important for some…

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…

For any positive integer $m$, let $\mathbb{Z}_{m}$ be the set of residue classes modulo $m$. For $A\subseteq \mathbb{Z}_{m}$ and $\overline{n}\in \mathbb{Z}_{m}$, let representation function $R_{A}(\overline{n})$ denote the number of…

By a very simple argument, we prove that if $l,m,n$ are nonnegative integers then $$\sum_{k=0}^l(-1)^{m-k}\binom{l}{k}\binom{m-k}{n}\binom{2k}{k-2l+m} =\sum_{k=0}^l\binom{l}{k}\binom{2k}{n}\binom{n-l}{m+n-3k-l}. On the basis of this…

Given a compact subset $\Sigma$ of the real numbers obeying some technical conditions, we consider the set of algebraic integers whose conjugates all lie in $\Sigma$. The distribution of conjugates of such an integer defines a probability…

We prove some general recursions for the numbers of representations of positive integers as a sum x+y, x in X, y in Y, where X,Y are increasing sequences. In particular, we obtain recursions for the number of the Goldbach, Lemoine-Levy,…

We consider the set Sigma(R,C) of all mxn matrices having 0-1 entries and prescribed row sums R=(r_1, ..., r_m) and column sums C=(c_1, ..., c_n). We prove an asymptotic estimate for the cardinality |Sigma(R, C)| via the solution to a…

The question whether there exists an integral solution to the system of linear equations with non-negative constraints, $A\x = \b, \, \x \ge 0$, where $A \in \Z^{m\times n}$ and ${\mathbf b} \in \Z^m$, finds its applications in many areas,…

In this note we prove a selection of commutativity theorems for various classes of semigroups. For instance, if in a separative or completely regular semigroup $S$ we have $x^p y^p = y^p x^p$ and $x^q y^q = y^q x^q$ for all $x,y\in S$ where…

Given an integer $k$, define $C_k$ as the set of integers $n > \max(k,0)$ such that $a^{n-k+1} \equiv a \pmod{n}$ holds for all integers $a$. We establish various multiplicative properties of the elements in $C_k$ and give a sufficient…

Let $a, b,c $ and $k$ be positive integers such that $1\leq a\leq b,a<c<2(a+b), c\ne b$ and $(a,b,c)=1$. Define the arithmetic function $f_k(a,b;c;n)$ by $$ \sum_{n=1}^{\infty}\frac{f_k(a,b;c;n)}{n^s}=\frac{\zeta (as)\zeta…

An effective upper bound is established for the least non-trivial integer solution to the system of cubic forms \[ \begin{cases} F = c_{1}x_1^3 + c_{2}x_2^3 + \cdots + c_{n}x_n^3 = 0, \\ G = d_{1}x_1^3 + d_{2}x_2^3 + \cdots + d_{n}x_n^3 =…

Let $m\leq n$ be positive integers and $\mathfrak X$ a class of groups which is closed for subgroups, quotient groups and extensions. Suppose that a finite group $G$ satisfies the condition that for every two subsets $M$ and $N$ of…

For $a,b\in\mathbb{N}_0$, we consider $(an+b)$-color compositions of a positive integer $\nu$ for which each part of size $n$ admits $an+b$ colors. We study these compositions from the enumerative point of view and give a formula for the…

Let (G, *) be a semigroup, D subset of G, and n >= 2 be an integer. We say that (D, *) is an n-closed subset of G if a_1* ... *a_n in D for every a_1, ..., a_n in D. Hence every closed set is a 2-closed set. The concept of n-closed sets…

We prove that deciding whether a given input word contains as subsequence every possible permutation of integers $\{1,2,\ldots,n\}$ is coNP-complete. The coNP-completeness holds even when given the guarantee that the input word contains as…

In this paper, a class of combinatorial identities is proved. A method is used which is based on the following rule: counting elements of a given set in two ways and making equal the obtained results. This rule is known as "counting in two…

We determine, within 1, the value of N for which sum (s1 choose i)(s2 choose N)(s1 choose N-i)(N choose i) achieves its maximum value. Here s1 and s2 are fixed integers. This problem arises in studying the most likely value for the size of…