Related papers: An improved bound on sums of square roots via the …

The Sum of Square Roots (SSR) problem is the following computational problem: Given positive integers $a_1, \dots, a_k$, and signs $\delta_1, \dots, \delta_k \in \{-1, 1\}$, check if $\sum_{i=1}^k \delta_i \sqrt{a_i} > 0$. The problem is…

Writing for a general mathematical audience, we provide elementary upper and lower bounds on the growth (as a function of N) of the sum \sum_{n=1}^N (-1)^{\floor{n x}} for various fixed x. For example, if x is a quadratic irrational, then…

Let $k$ and $n$ be positive integers, $n>k$. Define $r(n,k)$ to be the minimum positive value of $$ |\sqrt{a_1} + ... + \sqrt{a_k} - \sqrt{b_1} - >... -\sqrt{b_k} | $$ where $ a_1, a_2, ..., a_k, b_1, b_2, ..., b_k $ are positive integers…

Let $k \in \mathbb{N}$ and suppose we are given $k$ integers $1 \leq a_1, \dots, a_k \leq n$. If $\sqrt{a_1} + \dots + \sqrt{a_k}$ is not an integer, how close can it be to one? When $k=1$, the distance to the nearest integer is $\gtrsim…

The presented analysis determines several new bounds on the roots of the equation $a_n x^n + a_{n-1} x^{n-1} + \cdots + a_0 = 0$ (with $a_n > 0$). All proposed new bounds are lower than the Cauchy bound max$\{1, \sum_{j=0}^{n-1} |a_j/a_n|…

We improve upon a result of Steinerberger (2024) by demonstrating that for any fixed $k \in \mathbb{N}$ and sufficiently large $n$, there exist integers $1 \leq a_1, \dots, a_k \leq n$ satisfying: \begin{align*} 0 < \left\| \sum_{j=1}^{k}…

Let $\{a_1, . . . , a_n\}$ be a set of positive integers with $a_1 < \dots < a_n$ such that all $2^n$ subset sums are distinct. A famous conjecture by Erd\H{o}s states that $a_n>c\cdot 2^n$ for some constant $c$, while the best result known…

We obtain new bounds of exponential sums modulo a prime $p$ with sparse polynomials $a_0x^{n_0} + \cdots + a_{\nu}x^{n_\nu}$. The bounds depend on various greatest common divisors of exponents $n_0, \ldots, n_\nu$ and their differences. In…

Let $\Sigma=\{a_1, \ldots , a_n\}$ be a set of positive integers with $a_1 < \ldots < a_n$ such that all $2^n$ subset sums are pairwise distinct. A famous conjecture of Erd\H{o}s states that $a_n>C\cdot 2^n$ for some constant $C$, while the…

This paper focuses on the study of the order of power series that are linear combinations of a given finite set of power series. The order of a formal power series, known as $\textrm{ord}(f)$, is defined as the minimum exponent of $x$ that…

Let $A(s) = \sum_n a_n n^{-s}$ be a Dirichlet series with meromorphic continuation. Say we are given information on the poles of $A(s)$ with $|\Im s| \leq T$ for some large constant $T$. What is the best way to use such finite spectral data…

Let $\mu(t) = \sum_{\tau\in S} \alpha_\tau \delta(t-\tau)$ denote an $|S|$-atomic measure defined on $[0,1]$, satisfying $\min_{\tau\neq \tau'}|\tau - \tau'|\geq |S|\cdot n^{-1}$. Let $\eta(\theta) = \sum_{\tau\in S} a_\tau D_n(\theta -…

For $n,\,d\ge1$ let $p(n,2d)$ denote the smallest number $p$ such that every sum of squares of forms of degree $d$ in $\mathbb{R}[x_1,\dots,x_n]$ is a sum of $p$ squares. We establish lower bounds for these numbers that are considerably…

Let $\left\{a_1, \dots, a_n\right\} \subset \mathbb{N}$ be a set of positive integers, $a_n$ denoting the largest element, so that for any two of the $2^n$ subsets the sum of all elements is distinct. Erd\H{o}s asked whether this implies…

We show that there exists an absolute constant $c > 0$, such that, for any finite set $A$ of quaternions, \[ \max\{|A+A, |AA| \} \gtrsim |A|^{4/3 + c}. \] This generalizes a sum-product bound for real numbers proved by Konyagin and…

We prove prime exponential sums have no better than square root cancellation on average on short intervals, in the sense that $$\frac{1}{x} \sum_{-y< n\le x} \left|\sum_{\substack{n< m \le n+y\\ 1\le m \le x}} \Lambda(m) \mathrm{e}(\alpha…

Let $A(s) = \sum_n a_n n^{-s}$ be a Dirichlet series admitting meromorphic continuation to the complex plane. Assume we know the location of the poles of $A(s)$ with $|\Im s| \leq T$, and their residues, for some large constant $T$. It is…

Let $Z(N)$ denote the minimum number of zeros in $[0,2\pi]$ that a cosine polynomial of the form $$f_A(t)=\sum_{n\in A}\cos nt$$ can have when $A$ is a finite set of non-negative integers of size $|A|=N$. It is an old problem of Littlewood…

Given a large data matrix $A\in\mathbb{R}^{n\times n}$, we consider the problem of determining whether its entries are i.i.d. with some known marginal distribution $A_{ij}\sim P_0$, or instead $A$ contains a principal submatrix $A_{{\sf…

We extend the best known bound on the largest subset of {1,2,...,N} with no square differences to the largest possible class of quadratic polynomials.