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Refining an estimate of Croot, Dobbs, Friedlander, Hetzel and Pappalardi, we show that for all $k \geq 2$, the number of integers $1 \leq a \leq n$ such that the equation $a/n = 1/m_1 + \dotsc + 1/m_k$ has a solution in positive integers…
Given $n$ elements, an integer $k$ and a parameter $\varepsilon$, we study to select an element with rank in $(k-n\varepsilon,k+n\varepsilon]$ using unreliable comparisons where the outcome of each comparison is incorrect independently with…
We consider the question of approximating any real number $\alpha$ by sums of $n$ rational numbers $\frac{a_1}{q_1} + \frac{a_2}{q_2} + ... + \frac{a_n}{q_n}$ with denominators $1 \leq q_1, q_2, ..., q_n \leq N$. This leads to an inquiry on…
For a finite abelian group $G$ and a positive integer $d$, let $\mathsf s_{d \mathbb N} (G)$ denote the smallest integer $\ell \in \mathbb N_0$ such that every sequence $S$ over $G$ of length $|S| \ge \ell$ has a nonempty zero-sum…
Exponential-time approximation has recently gained attention as a practical way to deal with the bitter NP-hardness of well-known optimization problems. We study for the first time the $(1 + \varepsilon)$-approximate min-sum subset…
We generalize Dirichlet's diophantine approximation theorem to approximating any real number $\alpha$ by a sum of two rational numbers $\frac{a_1}{q_1} + \frac{a_2}{q_2}$ with denominators $1 \leq q_1, q_2 \leq N$. This turns out to be…
Let $G$ be an additive finite abelian group and let $k\in [\exp(G),\mathsf{D}(G)-1]$ be a positive integer. Denote by $\mathsf{s}_{\leq k}(G)$ the smallest positive integer $l\in \mathbb{N}\cup \{+\infty\}$ such that each sequence of length…
Given a positive integer $n$ we let $A_k(n)$ be the number of positive integers $a$ such that $\frac{a}{n}=\frac{1}{m_1}+\frac{1}{m_2}+\cdots+\frac{1}{m_k}$ for some $m_1,m_2,\ldots,m_k\in {\mathbb N}$. We show that $x(\log x)^3\ll…
We study the computational complexity of approximating the 2->q norm of linear operators (defined as ||A||_{2->q} = sup_v ||Av||_q/||v||_2), as well as connections between this question and issues arising in quantum information theory and…
We study sublinear time algorithms for estimating the size of maximum matching in graphs. Our main result is a $(\frac{1}{2}+\Omega(1))$-approximation algorithm which can be implemented in $O(n^{1+\epsilon})$ time, where $n$ is the number…
Shannon's entropy is a clear lower bound for statistical compression. The situation is not so well understood for dictionary-based compression. A plausible lower bound is $b$, the least number of phrases of a general bidirectional parse of…
For a positive rational $\alpha$, call a set of distinct positive integers $\{a_1, a_2, \ldots, a_r\}$ an $\alpha$-partition of $n$, if the sum of the $a_i$ is equal to $n$ and the sum of the reciprocals of the $a_i$ is equal to $\alpha$.…
The sequence of 1/2-discrepancy sums of $\{x + i \theta \bmod 1\}$ is realized through a sequence of substitutions on an alphabet of three symbols; particular attention is paid to $x=0$. The first application is to show that any asymptotic…
A sequence of positive integers $(a_1,a_2,\ldots,a_k)$ is called $\ell$-additive if $a_1+a_2+\cdots+a_k=\ell a_1$ or $\ell a_k$. In this paper, we prove that for all $k\geq3$, if $n$ is sufficiently large, then every permutation of…
We study sublinear time algorithms for estimating the size of maximum matching. After a long line of research, the problem was finally settled by Behnezhad [FOCS'22], in the regime where one is willing to pay an approximation factor of $2$.…
For any real $k\geq 2$ and large prime $q$, we prove a lower bound on the $2k$-th moment of the Dirichlet character sum \begin{equation*} \frac{1}{\phi(q)} \sum_{\substack{\chi \text{ mod }q\\ \chi\neq \chi_0}} \Big| \sum_{n\leq x}…
Let $n$ and $r$ be two integers such that $0 < r \le n$; we denote by $\gamma(n,r)$ [$\eta(n,r)$] the minimum [maximum] number of the non-negative partial sums of a sum $\sum_{1=1}^n a_i \ge 0$, where $a_1, \cdots, a_n$ are $n$ real numbers…
Consider the following problem: given two arbitrary densities $q_1,q_2$ and a sample-access to an unknown target density $p$, find which of the $q_i$'s is closer to $p$ in total variation. A remarkable result due to Yatracos shows that this…
A set of natural numbers is primitive if no element of the set divides another. Erd\H{o}s conjectured that if S is any primitive set, then \sum_{n\in S} 1/(n log n) \le \sum_{n\in \P} 1/(p log p), where \P denotes the set of primes. In this…
It was recently shown that $q\omega(q)$, where $\omega(q)$ is one of the third order mock theta functions, is the generating function of $p_{\omega}(n)$, the number of partitions of a positive integer $n$ such that all odd parts are less…