Related papers: Long zero-free sequences in finite cyclic groups

Tarnauceanu [Archiv der Mathematik, 102 (1), (2014), 11--14] gave a characterisation of elementary abelian $2$-groups in terms of their maximal sum-free sets. His theorem states that a finite group $G$ is an elementary abelian $2$-group if…

We show that, in contrast to the integers setting, almost all even order abelian groups $G$ have exponentially fewer maximal sum-free sets than $2^{\mu(G)/2}$, where $\mu(G)$ denotes the size of a largest sum-free set in $G$. This confirms…

A finite abelian group $G$ of cardinality $n$ is said to be of type III if every prime divisor of $n$ is congruent to 1 modulo 3. We obtain a classification theorem for sum-free subsets of largest possible cardinality in a finite abelian…

An $integral$ of a group $G$ is a group $H$ whose derived group (commutator subgroup) is isomorphic to $G$. This paper discusses integrals of groups, and in particular questions about which groups have integrals and how big or small those…

Let $(G,+)$ be a finite abelian group. Then, $\so(G)$ and $\eta(G)$ denote the smallest integer $\ell$ such that each sequence over $G$ of length at least $\ell$ has a subsequence whose terms sum to $0$ and whose length is equal to and at…

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…

We study a zero-sum problem dealing with minimal zero-sum sequences of maximal length over finite abelian groups. A positive answer to this problem yields a structural description of sets of lengths with maximal elasticity in transfer Krull…

Let $G$ be a finite abelian group. For any positive integers $d$ and $m$, let $\varphi_G(d)$ be the number of elements in $G$ of order $d$ and $\mathsf M(G,m)$ be the set of all zero-sum sequences of length $m$. In this paper, for any…

Let $G$ be a finite cyclic group. Every sequence $S$ of length $l$ over $G$ can be written in the form $S=(n_1g)\cdot\ldots\cdot(n_lg)$ where $g\in G$ and $n_1, \ldots, n_l\in[1, \ord(g)]$, and the index $\ind(S)$ of $S$ is defined to be…

We call a subset $A$ of the (additive) abelian group $G$ {\it $t$-independent} if for all non-negative integers $h$ and $k$ with $h+k \leq t$, the sum of $h$ (not necessarily distinct) elements of $A$ does not equal the sum of $k$ (not…

In this paper we discuss some of the key properties of sum-free subsets of abelian groups. Our discussion has been designed with a broader readership in mind, and is hence not overly technical. We consider answers to questions like: how…

Let $p$ be any odd prime number. Let $k$ be any positive integer such that $2\leq k\leq [\frac{p+1}3]+1$. Let $S = (a_1,a_2,...,a_{2p-k})$ be any sequence in ${\Bbb Z}_p$ such that there is no subsequence of length $p$ of $S$ whose sum is…

Let $\mathcal S$ be a multiset of integers. We say $\mathcal S$ is a $\textit{zero-sum sequence}$ if the sum of its elements is 0. We study zero-sum sequences whose elements lie in the interval $[-k,k]$ such that no subsequence of length…

For a finite abelian group $G$ and a positive integer $k$, let $s_{k}(G)$ denote the smallest integer $\ell\in\mathbb{N}$ such that any sequence $S$ of elements of $G$ of length $|S|\geq\ell$ has a zero-sum subsequence with length $k$. The…

Call a graph $G$ zero-forcing for a finite abelian group $\mathcal{G}$ if for every $\ell : V(G) \to \mathcal{G}$ there is a connected $A \subseteq V(G)$ with $\sum_{a \in A} \ell(a) = 0$. The problem we pose here is to characterise the…

We extend the concepts of sum-free sets and Sidon-sets of combinatorial number theory with the aim to provide explicit constructions for spherical designs. We call a subset $S$ of the (additive) abelian group $G$ {\it $t$-free} if for all…

We present constructions of symmetric complete sum-free sets in general finite cyclic groups. It is shown that the relative sizes of the sets are dense in $[0,\frac{1}{3}]$, answering a question of Cameron, and that the number of those…

Let $G = C_{n_1} \oplus ... \oplus C_{n_r}$ with $1 < n_1 \t ... \t n_r$ be a finite abelian group, $\mathsf d^* (G) = n_1 + ... + n_r - r$, and let $\mathsf d (G)$ denote the maximal length of a zero-sum free sequence over $G$. Then…

We discuss several questions concerning sum-free sets in groups, raised by Erd\H{o}s in his survey "Extremal problems in number theory" (Proceedings of the Symp. Pure Math. VIII AMS) published in 1965. Among other things, we give a…

Let $G$ be a finite cyclic group. Every sequence $S$ over $G$ can be written in the form $S=(n_1g)\cdot\ldots\cdot(n_lg)$ where $g\in G$ and $n_1, \ldots, n_l\in[1, \ord(g)]$, and the index $\ind(S)$ of $S$ is defined to be the minimum of…