Related papers: Distinct Partial Sums in Cyclic Groups: Polynomial…

In this paper we consider the following conjecture, proposed by Brian Alspach, concerning partial sums in finite cyclic groups: given a subset $A$ of $\mathbb{Z}_n\setminus \{0\}$ of size $k$ such that $\sum_{z\in A} z\not= 0$, it is…

A subset of an abelian group is {\em sequenceable} if there is an ordering $(x_1, \ldots, x_k)$ of its elements such that the partial sums $(y_0, y_1, \ldots, y_k)$, given by $y_0 = 0$ and $y_i = \sum_{j=1}^i x_i$ for $1 \leq i \leq k$, are…

We are interested in ordering the elements of a subset A of the non-zero integers modulo n in such a way that all the partial sums are distinct. We conjecture that this can always be done and we prove various partial results about this…

A subset $A$ of an abelian group $G$ is sequenceable if there is an ordering $(a_1, \ldots, a_k)$ of its elements such that the partial sums $(s_0, s_1, \ldots, s_k)$, given by $s_0 = 0$ and $s_i = \sum_{j=1}^i a_i$ for $1 \leq i \leq k$,…

A conjecture of Graham (repeated by Erd\H{o}s) asserts that for any set $A \subseteq \mathbb{F}_p \setminus \{0\}$, there is an ordering $a_1, \ldots, a_{|A|}$ of the elements of $A$ such that the partial sums $a_1, a_1+a_2, \ldots,…

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…

The partial sums of a sequence ${\mathbf x} = x_1, x_2, \ldots, x_k$ of distinct non-identity elements of a group $(G,\cdot)$ are $s_0 = id_G$ and $s_j = \prod_{i=1}^j x_i$ for $0 < j \leq k$. If the partial sums are all different then…

We show that for a subset $A$ of the cyclic group of prime order $p>3$, if the sumset $A+A-2A$ is not the whole group, then $|A|\le \frac27\,p$. Besides combinatorial arguments, we utilize a general technique involving linear programming.

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…

We call a subset $A$ of the (additive) abelian group $G$ {\it $t$-independent} if for all non-negative integers $h$ and $k$ with $h+k \leq t$, the sum of $h$ (not necessarily distinct) elements of $A$ does not equal the sum of $k$ (not…

Denote by $G$ a finite group and by $\psi(G)$ the sum of element orders in $G$. If $t$ is a positive integer, denote by $C_t$ the cyclic group of order $t$ and write $\psi(t)=\psi(C_t)$. In this paper we proved the following Theorem A: Let…

Let $n$ be a large number. A subset $A$ of $Z_n$ is complete if $S_A = Z_n$, where $S_A$ is the collection of the subset sums of $A$. Olson proved that if $n$ is a prime and $|A|> 2n^{1/2} $, then $S_A$ is complete. We show that a similar…

We prove a conjecture of Dukes and Herke concerning the possible orders of a basis for the cyclic group Z_n, namely : For each k \in N there exists a constant c_k > 0 such that, for all n \in N, if A \subseteq Z_n is a basis of order…

A subset $X$ of an abelian $G$ is said to be {\em complete} if every element of the subgroup generated by $X$ can be expressed as a nonempty sum of distinct elements from $X$. Let $A\subset \Z_n$ be such that all the elements of $A$ are…

A subset $A$ of a finite abelian group $G$ is called $(k,l)$-sum-free if the sum of $k$ (not-necessarily-distinct) elements of $A$ never equals the sum of $l$ (not-necessarily-distinct) elements of $A$. We find an explicit formula for the…

Let $A$ and $B$ be finite subsets of $\mathbb{C}$ such that $|B|=C|A|$. We show the following variant of the sum product phenomenon: If $|AB|<\alpha|A|$ and $\alpha \ll \log |A|$, then $|kA+lB|\gg |A|^k|B|^l$. This is an application of a…

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…

Let $G\cong \mathbb Z/m_1\mathbb Z\times\ldots\times \mathbb Z/m_r\mathbb Z$ be a finite abelian group with $m_1\mid\ldots\mid m_r=\exp(G)$. The $n$-term subsums version of Kneser's Theorem, obtained either via the DeVos-Goddyn-Mohar…

Let G be any abelian group and {a_sG_s}_{s=1}^k be a finite system of cosets of subgroups G_1,...,G_k. We show that if {a_sG_s}_{s=1}^k covers all the elements of G at least m times with the coset a_tG_t irredundant then [G:G_t]\le 2^{k-m}…

In this article we aim to develop from first principles a theory of sum sets and partial sum sets, which are defined analogously to difference sets and partial difference sets. We obtain non-existence results and characterisations. In…