Related papers: Graham conjecture on small sets in abelian groups

A conjecture of Graham (repeated by Erd\H{o}s) asserts that for any set $A \subseteq \mathbb{F}_p \setminus \{0\}$, there is an ordering $a_1, \ldots, a_{|A|}$ of the elements of $A$ such that the partial sums $a_1, a_1+a_2, \ldots,…

A famous conjecture of Graham asserts that every set $A \subseteq \mathbb{Z}_p \setminus \{0\}$ can be ordered so that all partial sums are distinct. Although this conjecture was recently proved for sufficiently large primes by Pham and…

Graham conjectured in 1971 that for any prime $p$, any subset $S\subseteq \mathbb{Z}_p\setminus \{0\}$ admits an ordering $s_1,s_2,\dots,s_{|S|}$ where all partial sums $s_1, s_1+s_2,\dots,s_1+s_2+\dots+s_{|S|}$ are distinct. We prove this…

A subset of an abelian group is {\em sequenceable} if there is an ordering $(x_1, \ldots, x_k)$ of its elements such that the partial sums $(y_0, y_1, \ldots, y_k)$, given by $y_0 = 0$ and $y_i = \sum_{j=1}^i x_i$ for $1 \leq i \leq k$, are…

In this paper we consider the following conjecture, proposed by Brian Alspach, concerning partial sums in finite cyclic groups: given a subset $A$ of $\mathbb{Z}_n\setminus \{0\}$ of size $k$ such that $\sum_{z\in A} z\not= 0$, it is…

A 1971 conjecture of Graham (later repeated by Erd\H{o}s and Graham) asserts that every set $A \subseteq \mathbb{F}_p \setminus \{0\}$ has an ordering whose partial sums are all distinct. We prove this conjecture for sets of size $|A|…

A subset $A$ of an abelian group $G$ is sequenceable if there is an ordering $(a_1, \ldots, a_k)$ of its elements such that the partial sums $(s_0, s_1, \ldots, s_k)$, given by $s_0 = 0$ and $s_i = \sum_{j=1}^i a_i$ for $1 \leq i \leq k$,…

A famous conjecture of Graham asserts that every set $A \subseteq \mathbb{Z}_p \setminus \{0\}$ can be ordered so that all partial sums are distinct. Bedert and Kravitz proved that this statement holds whenever $|A| \leq e^{c(\log…

A sequence $s_1,s_2,\ldots, s_k$ of elements of a group $G$ is called a valid ordering if the partial products $s_1, s_1 s_2, \ldots, s_1\cdots s_k$ are all distinct. A long-standing problem in combinatorial group theory asks whether, for a…

A sequence of elements of a finite group G is called a zero-sum sequence if it sums to the identity of G. The study of zero-sum sequences has a long history with many important applications in number theory and group theory. In 1989…

Let $(G,+)$ be an abelian group and consider a subset $A \subseteq G$ with $|A|=k$. Given an ordering $(a_1, \ldots, a_k)$ of the elements of $A$, define its {\em partial sums} by $s_0 = 0$ and $s_j = \sum_{i=1}^j a_i$ for $1 \leq j \leq…

In this note we provide some counterexamples for the conjecture of Moret\'{o} on finite simple groups, which says that any finite simple group $G$ can determined in terms of its order $|G|$ and the number of elements of order $p$, where $p$…

Let $G$ be an additive finite abelian group, and let $\mathrm{disc}(G)$ denote the smallest positive integer $t$ with the property that every sequence $S$ over $G$ with length $|S|\geq t $ contains two nonempty zero-sum subsequences of…

We prove that any finite abelian group $G$ contains a collection of not too many subsets with a special structure, so that for every subset $A$ of $G$ with a small doubling, there is a member $F$ of the collection that is fully contained in…

For an additive group $\Gamma$ the sequence $S = (g_1, \ldots, g_t)$ of elements of $\Gamma$ is a zero-sum sequence if $g_1 + \cdots + g_t = 0_\Gamma$. The cross number of $S$ is defined to be the sum $\sum_{i=1}^k 1/|g_i|$, where $|g_i|$…

Let $(G, +)$ be an abelian group. In 2004, Eliahou and Kervaire found an explicit formula for the smallest possible cardinality of the sumset $A+A$, where $A \subseteq G$ has fixed cardinality $r$. We consider instead the smallest possible…

Let $G=(\mathbb Z/n\mathbb Z) \oplus (\mathbb Z/n\mathbb Z)$. Let $\mathsf {s}_{\leq k}(G)$ be the smallest integer $\ell$ such that every sequence of $\ell$ terms from $G$, with repetition allowed, has a nonempty zero-sum subsequence with…

Let $G$ be a permutation group on a set $\Omega$. A subset of $\Omega$ is a base for $G$ if its pointwise stabilizer in $G$ is trivial. By $b(G)$ we denote the size of the smallest base of $G$. Every permutation group with $b(G)=2$ contains…

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…

Let A be a subset of an abelian group G. We say that A is sum-free if there do not exist x,y and z in A satisfying x + y = z. We determine, for any G, the cardinality of the largest sum-free subset of G. This equals c(G)|G| where c(G) is a…