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We analyze sumsets A+B = {a+b : a in A, b in B} where A,B are sets of integers, A is infinite, and B has positive upper Banach density. For each k, we show that A+B contains at least the expected density of k-term arithmetic progressions…
We prove that if A is a subset of the primes, and the lower density of A in the primes is larger than 5/8, then all sufficiently large odd positive integers can be written as the sum of three primes in A. The constant 5/8 in this statement…
It was shown by V. Bergelson that any set B with positive upper multiplicative density contains nicely intertwined arithmetic and geometric progressions: For each positive integer k there exist integers a,b,d such that $ {b(a+id)^j:i,j…
The problem of looking for subsets of the natural numbers which contain no 3-term arithmetic progressions has a rich history. Roth's theorem famously shows that any such subset cannot have positive upper density. In contrast, Rankin in 1960…
The Franel numbers are defined by $ f_n=\sum_{k=0}^n {n\choose k}^3. $ Motivated by the recent work of Z.-W. Sun on Franel numbers, we prove that \begin{align*} \sum_{k=0}^{n-1}(3k+1)(-16)^{n-k-1} {2k\choose k} f_k &\equiv…
For a prime $p$, a restricted arithmetic progression in $\mathbb{F}_p^n$ is a triplet of vectors $x, x+a, x+2a$ in which the common difference $a$ is a non-zero element from $\{0,1,2\}^n$. What is the size of the largest $A\subseteq…
We estimate the asymptotic density of the set $\bar{A}$ of primes $p$ satisfying the constraint that $p+1$ and $p-1$ have only one prime divisor larger than $3$. We also estimate the density of a maximal subset $\bar{B} \subset \bar{A}$…
In this paper, we prove several supercongruences conjectured by Z.-W. Sun ten years ago via certain strange hypergeometric identities. For example, for any prime $p>3$, we show that…
Let $a$, $b$, $c$ be fixed coprime positive integers with $\min\{ a,b,c \} >1$. Let $N(a,b,c)$ denote the number of positive integer solutions $(x,y,z)$ of the equation $a^x + b^y = c^z$. We show that if $(a,b,c)$ is a triple of distinct…
In this paper, we confirm some congruences conjectured by V.J.W. Guo and M.J. Schlosser recently. For example, we show that for primes $p>3$, $$…
A variation on the sum-product problem seeks to show that a set which is defined by additive and multiplicative operations will always be large. In this paper, we prove new results of this type. In particular, we show that for any finite…
We prove that there is a small but fixed positive integer e such that for every prime larger than a fixed integer, every subset S of the integers modulo p which satisfies |2S|<(2+e)|S| and 2(|2S|)-2|S|+2 < p is contained in an arithmetic…
Let $a$, $b$, $c$ be distinct primes with $a<b$. Let $S(a,b,c)$ denote the number of positive integer solutions $(x,y,z)$ of the equation $a^x + b^y = c^z$. In a previous paper \cite{LeSt} it was shown that if $(a,b,c)$ is a triple of…
Let $P$ be a subset of the primes of lower density strictly larger than $\frac12$. Then, every sufficiently large even integer is a sum of four primes from the set $P$. We establish similar results for $k$-summands, with $k\geq 4$, and for…
We will prove several congruences modulo a power of a prime such as $$ \sum_{0<k_1<...<k_{n}<p}\leg{p-k_{n}}{3} {(-1)^{k_{n}}\over k_1... k_{n}}\equiv {lll} -{2^{n+1}+2\over 6^{n+1}} p B_{p-n-1}({1\over 3}) &\pmod{p^2} &{if $n$ is odd}…
Let $A$ be a finite set of integers. We show that if $k$ is a prime power or a product of two distinct primes then $$|A+k\cdot A|\geq(k+1)|A|-\lceil k(k+2)/4\rceil$$ provided $|A|\geq (k-1)^{2}k!$, where $A+k\cdot A=\{a+kb:\ a,b\in A\}$. We…
The well-known $abc$-conjecture concerns triples $(a,b,c)$ of non-zero integers that are coprime and satisfy ${a+b+c=0}$. The strong $n$-conjecture is a generalisation to $n$ summands where integer solutions of the equation ${a_1 + \ldots +…
In this paper we deduce some new supercongruences modulo powers of a prime $p>3$. Let $d\in\{0,1,\ldots,(p-1)/2\}$. We show that $$\sum_{k=0}^{(p-1)/2}\frac{\binom{2k}k\binom{2k}{k+d}}{8^k}\equiv 0\ (\mbox{mod}\ p)\ \ \ \mbox{if}\ d\equiv…
Let $p$ be an odd prime and let $d\in\{2,3,7\}$. When $(\frac{-d}p)=1$ we can write $p=x^2+dy^2$ with $x,y\in\mathbb Z$; in this paper we aim at determining $x$ or $y$ modulo $p^2$. For example, when $p=x^2+3y^2$, we show that if $p\equiv…
For integers $m$ and $n$, we study the problem of finding good lower bounds for the size of progression-free sets in $(\mathbb{Z}_{m}^{n},+)$. Let $r_{k}(\mathbb{Z}_{m}^{n})$ denote the maximal size of a subset of $\mathbb{Z}_{m}^{n}$…