Related papers: The largest $(k, \ell)$-sum-free subsets
Given an Abelian groups $G$, denote $\mu(G)$ the size of its largest sum-free subset and $f_{\max}(G)$ the number of maximal sum-free sets in $G$. Confirming a prediction by Liu and Sharifzadeh, we prove that all even-order $G\ne…
Let $f(n)$ count the number of subsets of $\{1,...,n\}$ without an element dividing another. In this paper I show that $f(n)$ grows like the $n$-th power of some real number, in the sense that $\lim_{n\rightarrow \infty}f(n)^{1/n}$ exists.…
We prove that |A^n| > c_n |A|^{[\frac{n+1}{2}]} for any finite subset A of a free group if A contains at least two noncommuting elements, where c_n>0 are constants not depending on A. Simple examples show that the order of these estimates…
Put n open non-overlapping squares inside a unit square, and let f(n) denote the maximum possible value of the sum of the side lengths of the n squares. Campbell and Staton, building on a question of Erdos, conjectured that…
Let $\mathbb{F}_p$ be a finite field of prime order $p$ and let $A \subset \mathbb{F}_p$ be a subset. In the dense regime when $|A| \geq \alpha p$ for some $\alpha \in (0,1)$, we determine the optimal constant $f(\alpha)$ in the inequality…
For two sets $A$ and $M$ of positive integers and for a positive integer $n$, let $p(n,A,M)$ denote the number of partitions of $n$ with parts in $A$ and multiplicities in $M$, that is, the number of representations of $n$ in the form…
Suppose that we have a set of numbers x_1, ..., x_n which have nonnegative sum. How many subsets of k numbers from {x_1, ..., x_n} must have nonnegative sum? Manickam, Miklos, and Singhi conjectured that for n at least 4k the answer is (n-1…
A set $S\subset\{1,2,...,n\}$ is called a Sidon set if all the sums $a+b~~(a,b\in S)$ are different. Let $S_n$ be the largest cardinality of the Sidon sets in $\{1,2,...,n\}$. In a former article, the author proved the following asymptotic…
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…
Addressing a question of Cameron and Erd\Ho s, we show that, for infinitely many values of $n$, the number of subsets of $\{1,2,\ldots, n\}$ that do not contain a $k$-term arithmetic progression is at most $2^{O(r_k(n))}$, where $r_k(n)$ is…
Let $r$, $m$ and $k\geq 2$ be positive integers such that $r\mid k$ and let $v \in \left[ 0,\lfloor \frac{k-1}{2r} \rfloor \right]$ be any integer. For any integer $\ell \in [1, k]$ and $\epsilon \in \{0,1\}$, we let…
For any integer $r \geq 1$, the sequence of numbers $\{{c^{(r)}_{k}}\}_{k \geq 0} $ is defined implicitly by [\sum_k\binom{n}{k}^r\binom{n+k}{k}^r = \sum_k\binom{n}{k}\binom{n+k}{k}c^{(r)}_k,\quad n=0,1,2,...] Asmus Schmidt conjectured that…
In this paper we investigate the probability distribution of the sum $Y$ of $\ell$ independent identically distributed random variables taking values in $\mathbb{Z}_p$. Our main focus is the regime of small values of $\ell$, which is less…
Let $C_n$ be a cyclic group of order $n$. A sequence $S$ of length $\ell$ over $C_n$ is a sequence $S = a_1\boldsymbol\cdot a_2\boldsymbol\cdot \ldots\boldsymbol\cdot a_{\ell}$ of $\ell$ elements in $C_n$, where a repetition of elements is…
We consider a variant of the ABC Conjecture, attempting to count the number of solutions to $A+B+C=0$, in relatively prime integers $A,B,C$ each of absolute value less than $N$ with $r(A)<|A|^a, r(B)<|B|^b, r(C)<|C|^c.$ The ABC Conjecture…
For any integer $r\ge2$, define a sequence of numbers $\{c_k^{(r)}\}_{k=0}^\infty$, independent of the parameter $n$, by $$ \sum_{k=0}^n{\binom nk}^r{\binom{n+k}k}^r =\sum_{k=0}^n\binom nk\binom{n+k}kc_k^{(r)}, \qquad n=0,1,2,...c. $$ We…
A finite set $A$ of integers is square-sum-free if there is no subset of $A$ sums up to a square. In 1986, Erd\H os posed the problem of determining the largest cardinality of a square-sum-free subset of $\{1, ..., n \}$. Answering this…
In 1971 Cusick proved that every real number $x\in[0,1]$ can be expressed as a sum of two continued fractions with no partial quotients equal to $1$. In other words, if we define a set $$ S(k):= \{ x\in[0,1] : a_n(x) \geq k \text{ for all }…
We discuss several questions concerning sum-free sets in groups, raised by Erd\H{o}s in his survey "Extremal problems in number theory" (Proceedings of the Symp. Pure Math. VIII AMS) published in 1965. Among other things, we give a…
We consider the asymptotic minimum density $f(s,k)$ of monotone $k$-subwords of words over a totally ordered alphabet of size $s$. The unrestricted alphabet case, $f(\infty,k)$, is well-studied, known for $f(\infty,3)$ and $f(\infty,4)$,…