Related papers: The Cameron-Erdos Conjecture

In 1997 we proved that if $n$ is of the form $$ 4k, \quad 8k-1\quad {\rm or} \quad 2^{2m+1}(2k-1)+3, $$ where $k,m\in \mathbb N,$ then there are no positive rational numbers $x,y,z$ satisfying $$ xyz = 1, \quad x+y+z = n. $$ Recently, N. X.…

We determine the largest subset $A\subseteq \{1,\dotsc,n\}$ such that for all $a,b\in A$, the product $ab$ is not squarefree. Specifically, the maximum size is achieved by the complement of the odd squarefree numbers. This resolves a…

Gerbner, Patk\'{o}s, Tuza, and Vizer recently initiated the study of $F$-saturated regular graphs. One of the essential problems in this line of research is determining when such a graph exists. Using generalized sum-free sets we prove that…

We show that under the assumption of a 24-term version of Fermat's Last Theorem, there exists an absolute constant c > 0 such that if S is a set of n > n_0 positive integers satisfying |S.S| < n^(1+c), then the sumset S.S satisfies |S+S| >>…

A subset of a group is product-free if it does not contain elements a, b, c such that ab = c. We review progress on the problem of determining the size of the largest product-free subset of an arbitrary finite group, including a lower bound…

It is a classical fact that every $n$-element set of positive reals has at least $\binom{n+1}{2}+1$ distinct subset sums, with equality exactly for homogeneous arithmetic progressions (when $n\geq 4$). We establish stability versions of…

Let $k \ge 2$ be even, and let $r$ be a non-zero integer. We show that for almost all $d \ge 2$ (in the sense of natural density), the equation $$ x^k+(x+r)^k+\cdots+(x+(d-1)r)^k=y^n, \qquad x,~y,~n \in \mathbb{Z}, \qquad n \ge 2, $$ has no…

Let $A\subseteq \mathbb Z_n$ be a subset. A sequence $S=(x_1,\ldots,x_k)$ in $\mathbb Z_n$ is said to be an $A$-weighted zero-sum sequence if there exist $a_1,\ldots,a_k\in A$ such that $a_1x_1+\cdots+a_kx_k=0$. By a square, we shall mean a…

For k>=3 let A \subset [1,N] be a set not containing a solution to a_1 x_1+...+a_k x_k=a_1 x_{k+1}+...+a_k x_{2k} in distinct integers. We prove that there is an epsilon>0 depending on the coefficients of the equation such that every such A…

Let G be a finite abelian group. For g in G and i an integer we define N(i,g) to be the number of subsets of G of size i which sum up to g. We will give a short proof, using character theory, of a formula for these N(i,g) due to Li and Wan.…

Let U be a numeration system, a set X of integers is U-star-free if the set made up of the U-representations of the elements in X is a star-free regular language. Answering a question of A. de Luca and A. Restivo, we obtain a complete…

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 say a natural number $n$ is matchable if there is a bijection from the set of $\tau(n)$ divisors of $n$ to the set $\{1,2,\dots,\tau(n)\}$, where corresponding numbers are relatively prime. We show that the set of matchable numbers has…

Let $G$ be a finite abelian group, and let $S$ be a sequence over $G$. Let $f(S)$ denote the number of elements in $G$ which can be expressed as the sum over a nonempty subsequence of $S$. In this paper, we determine all the sequences $S$…

The Erd\"{o}s-Straus conjecture states that the equation $\frac{4}{n}=\frac{1}{x}+\frac{1}{y}+\frac{1}{z}$ has positive integer solutions $x, y, z$ for every postive integers $n\ge 2$. We generalize the Erd\"{o}s-Straus equation, state…

Let $P$ and $T$ be disjoint sets of prime numbers with $T$ finite. A simple formula is given for the natural density of the set of square-free numbers which are divisible by all of the primes in $T$ and by none of the primes in $P$. If $P$…

Let $x$ be a positive real number, and $\mathcal{P} \subset [2,\lambda(x)]$ be a set of primes, where $\lambda(x) \in \Omega(x^\varepsilon)$ is a monotone increasing function with $\varepsilon \in (0,1)$. We examine $Q_{\mathcal{P}}(x)$,…

We investigate commutators of free variables of the form \( i[x, s] \), where \( s \) is a semicircular element. We show that although \( s \) and \( i[x, s] \) are not free, their sum nevertheless satisfies the free additive convolution…

Given a matrix $M = (a_{i,j})$ a square is a $2 \times 2$ submatrix with entries $a_{i,j}$, $a_{i, j+s}$, $a_{i+s, j}$, $a_{i+s, j +s}$ for some $s \geq 1$, and a zero-sum square is a square where the entries sum to $0$. Recently,…

The aim of this paper is to prove wordlessly the sum formula of $1^{k}+2^{k}+\ldots +n^{k}$, $k\in\{1,2,3\}$.