Related papers: On sumsets containing a perfect square
Given a set of integers $A$ and an integer $k$, write $A+k\cdot A$ for the set $\{a+kb:a\in A,b\in A\}$. Hanson and Petridis showed that if $|A+A|\le K|A|$ then $|A+2\cdot A|\le K^{2.95}|A|$. At a presentation of this result, Petridis…
It is natural to ask for a reasonable constant k having the property that any open set of area greater than k on a bidimensional sphere of area 1 always contains the vertices of a regular tetrahedron. We shall prove that it is sufficient to…
Let $n$ be a nonzero integer. A set of $m$ positive integers is called a $D(n)$-$m$-tuple if the product of any two of its distinct elements increased by $n$ is a perfect square. Let $k$ be a positive integer. By elementary means, we show…
By means of $q$-series, we prove that any natural number is a sum of an even square and two triangular numbers, and that each positive integer is a sum of a triangular number plus $x^2+y^2$ for some integers $x$ and $y$ with $x\not\equiv y…
A square-free monomial ideal $I$ is called an {\it $f$-ideal}, if both $\delta_{\mathcal{F}}(I)$ and $\delta_{\mathcal{N}}(I)$ have the same $f$-vector, where $\delta_{\mathcal{F}}(I)$ ($\delta_{\mathcal{N}}(I)$, respectively) is the facet…
Given $n$ real numbers $0\leq x_1,...,x_n<1$ and a permutation~$\sigma$ of $\{1,...,n\}$, we can always find $\xbar_1,...,\xbar_n\in\{0,1\}$ so that the partial sums $\xbar_1+... +\xbar_k$ and $\xbar_{\sigma 1}+... +\xbar_{\sigma k}$ differ…
For any sufficiently large $\ell$, suppose that $\ell$ can be expressed as $$ \ell=p_1^4+p_2^4+p_3^4+ \cdots +p_8^4,$$ where $p_1, p_2,p_3,\cdots, p_8$ are primes.For such $\ell$, in this paper we will use circle method and sieves to prove…
This is a sequel to the paper arXiv:1312.6438 by the same authors. In this sequel, we quantitatively improve several of the main results of arXiv:1312.6438, and build on the methods therein. The main new results is that, for any finite set…
It has been conjectured for some time that, for any integer n\ge 2, any real number \epsilon >0 and any transcendental real number \xi, there would exist infinitely many algebraic integers \alpha of degree at most n with the property that…
A Hilbert cube of dimension $d$ is the set of integers \[ H(a_{0}; a_{1}, \ldots, a_{d})=a_{0}+\{0, a_{1}\}+\cdots+\{0, a_{d}\}=\left\{a_{0}+\sum_{i=1}^{d}\varepsilon_{i}a_{i}:\;\varepsilon_{i}\in\{0,1\}\right\}. \] Brown, Erd\H{o}s and…
A set $B$ is said to be \emph{sum-free} if there are no $x,y,z\in B$ with $x+y=z$. We show that there exists a constant $c>0$ such that any set $A$ of $n$ integers contains a sum-free subset $A'$ of size $|A'|\geqslant n/3+c\log \log n$.…
The best bounds of the form $B(\alpha,\beta,\gamma,x)=(\alpha+\sqrt{\beta^2+\gamma^2 x^2})/x$ for ratios of modified Bessel functions are characterized: if $\alpha$, $\beta$ and $\gamma$ are chosen in such a way that…
We describe all sets $A \subseteq \F_p$ which represent the quadratic residues $R \subseteq \F_p$ as $R=A+A$ and $R=A\hat{+} A$. Also, we consider the case of an approximate equality $R \approx A+A$ and $R \approx A\hat{+} A$ and prove that…
A perfect number is a number whose divisors add up to twice the number itself. The existence of odd perfect numbers is a millennia-old unsolved problem. This note proposes a proof of the nonexistence of odd perfect numbers. More generally,…
Given a linear equation of the form $a_1x_1 + a_2x_2 + a_3x_3 = 0$ with integer coefficients $a_i$, we are interested in maximising the number of solutions to this equation in a set $S \subseteq \mathbb{Z}$, for sets $S$ of a given size. We…
For a non-degenerate integral quadratic form $F(x_1, \dots , x_d)$ in $d\geq5$ variables, we prove an optimal strong approximation theorem. Let $\Omega$ be a fixed compact subset of the affine quadric $F(x_1,\dots,x_d)=1$ over the real…
In this short note, we prove that the degree-three dilation of the square lattice $\mathbb{Z}^2$ is $1+\sqrt{2}$. This disproves a conjecture of Dumitrescu and Ghosh. We give a computer-assisted proof of a local-global property for the…
Let $v_1$, $v_2$, ..., $v_n$ be real numbers whose squares add up to 1. Consider the $2^n$ signed sums of the form $S = \sum \pm v_i$. Holzman and Kleitman (1992) proved that at least 3/8 of these sums satisfy $|S| \le 1$. This 3/8 bound…
We show that there is a positive constant $c_0$ such that \[\sum_{n\le x}\mu^2(n^2+1)c_0x+O_{\varepsilon}(x^{7/12+\varepsilon})\] for any fixed $\varepsilon>0$. This improves a result of Estermann [3] from 1931, in which the error term had…
Suppose that G is an abelian group and A is a finite subset of G containing no three-term arithmetic progressions. We show that |A+A| >> |A|(log |A|)^{1/3-\epsilon} for all \epsilon>0.