English

Maximizing the number of nonnegative subsets

Combinatorics 2014-01-29 v2

Abstract

Given a set of nn real numbers, if the sum of elements of every subset of size larger than kk is negative, what is the maximum number of subsets of nonnegative sum? In this note we show that the answer is (n1k1)+(n1k2)++(n10)+1\binom{n-1}{k-1} + \binom{n-1}{k-2} + \cdots + \binom{n-1}{0}+1, settling a problem of Tsukerman. We provide two proofs, the first establishes and applies a weighted version of Hall's Theorem and the second is based on an extension of the nonuniform Erd\H{o}s-Ko-Rado Theorem.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1312.0248,
  title  = {Maximizing the number of nonnegative subsets},
  author = {Noga Alon and Harout Aydinian and Hao Huang},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1312.0248},
  year   = {2014}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-22T02:18:25.708Z