Questions tagged [additive-combinatorics]

Questions on the subject additive combinatorics, also known as arithmetic combinatorics, such as questions on: additive bases, sum sets, inverse sum set theorems, sets with small doubling, Sidon sets, Szemerédi's theorem and its ramifications, Gowers uniformity norms, etc. Often combined with the top-level tags nt.number-theory or co.combinatorics. Some additional tags are available for further specialization, including the tags sumsets and sidon-sets.

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57 votes
3 answers
5k views

Number of elements in the set $\{1,\cdots,n\}\cdot\{1,\cdots,n\}$

Let $A_n=\{a\cdot b : a,b \in \mathbb{N}, a,b\leq n\}$. Are there any estimates for $|A_n|$? Will it be $o(n^2)$?
Kamalakshya's user avatar
7 votes
1 answer
721 views

Difference Sets

Suppose $$ P \subseteq \{1,2,\dots,N\},\quad |P| = K $$ We calculate the differences as: $$d=p_i-p_j\mod N,\quad i\ne j$$ Now let $a_d$ denote the number of occurrence of $d$ (for $d = 1, 2, \dots , N ...
Mahdi Khosravi's user avatar
5 votes
3 answers
2k views

Goldbach conjecture and other problems in additive combinatorics

The field is also known as additive number theory. I am interested in sums $z=x + y$ where $x \in S, y\in T$, and both $S, T$ are infinite sets of positive integers. For instance: $S = T$ is the set ...
Vincent Granville's user avatar
35 votes
5 answers
4k views

Cliques, Paley graphs and quadratic residues

A question I've thought about, on and off for a long time, is how to improve the best bounds that (seem to be) known for the clique numbers of Paley graphs. If p=1 mod 4 is a prime, we can define the ...
Mike's user avatar
  • 703
18 votes
1 answer
869 views

Two conjectures about zero inner products and dissociated sets

The following problems come from something I worked on (with my coauthors) related to proving a new time lower bound for streaming problems. Having worked on these problems for some time with little ...
Simd's user avatar
  • 3,195
5 votes
1 answer
468 views

Additivity of upper densities with respect to arithmetic progressions of integers

Let $\mathsf{d}^\star$ be the asymptotic upper density, defined on the power set of positive integers $\mathbf{N}^+$, so that $$ \mathsf{d}^\star\colon \mathcal{P}(\mathbf{N}^+) \to\mathbf{R}\colon X\...
Paolo Leonetti's user avatar
19 votes
3 answers
1k views

The sum of integers being a bijection

What are the pairs $(P,Q)$ of subsets of $\mathbb N$ for which the map \begin{eqnarray*} P\times Q & \rightarrow & {\mathbb N} \\\\ (p,q) & \mapsto & p+q \end{eqnarray*} is a bijection ...
Denis Serre's user avatar
  • 51.5k
11 votes
2 answers
1k views

Most dense subset of numbers that avoids arbitrarily long arithmetic progressions

The famous Green-Tao theorem says that there exist arbitrarily long sequences of primes in arithmetic progression. I am wondering: How dense can a subset $S \subset \mathbb{N}$ be and still avoid ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
3 votes
0 answers
190 views

A conjectural lower bound for $|\{\sum_{k=1}^nka_k:\ a_1,\ldots,a_n\ \text{are distinct elements of }\ A\}|$

Motivated by Question 315568 of mine, I'm interested in the set $$S(n):=\bigg\{\sum_{k=1}^n k\pi(k):\ \pi\in S_n\bigg\}.$$ It is easy to see that $$S(1)=\{1\},\ S(2)=\{4,5\}\ \text{and}\ S(3)=\{10,...
Zhi-Wei Sun's user avatar
  • 14.4k
3 votes
0 answers
131 views

Reference for a lemma on the asymptotic upper density of special sets with large gaps and intervals

Update. Based on Anthony Quas' comment below, the proof can be made sensibly shorter and the lemma can be slightly generalized by weakening the old assumption (iii). In a joint paper that I am ...
Salvo Tringali's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
377 views

Curious inversion formula in additive combinatorics

Let $S$ be an infinite set of positive integers, and $T=S+S=\{x+y, \mbox{ with } x,y\in S\}$.We definte the following functions: $N_S(z)$ is asymptotic continuous version of the function counting the ...
Vincent Granville's user avatar
0 votes
0 answers
152 views

General asymptotic result in additive combinatorics (sums of sets)

Let $S_1,\cdots,S_k$ be $k$ infinite sets of positive integers. Let $N_i(z)$ be the numbers of elements in $S_i$ that are less or equal to $z$. Let us further assume that $$N_i(S) \sim \frac{a_i z^{...
Vincent Granville's user avatar
111 votes
7 answers
8k views

Is the set $ AA+A $ always at least as large as $ A+A $?

Let $A$ be a finite set of real numbers. Is it always the case that $|AA+A| \geq |A+A|$? My first instinct is that this is obviously true, and there is a one-line proof which I am foolishly ...
Oliver Roche-Newton's user avatar
62 votes
5 answers
9k views

Jean Bourgain's relatively lesser known significant contributions

Jean Bourgain passed away on December 22, 2018. A great mathematician is no longer with us. Terry Tao has blogged about Bourgain's death and mentioned some of his more recent significant contributions,...
26 votes
2 answers
1k views

Partitions to different parts not exceeding $n$

Consider the polynomial $(1+x)(1+x^2)\dots (1+x^n)=1+x+\dots+x^{n(n+1)/2}$, which enumerates subj. How to prove that it's coefficients increase up to $x^{n(n+1)/4}$ (and hence decrease after this)? Or ...
Fedor Petrov's user avatar
23 votes
3 answers
3k views

How many different numbers can be obtained as product of first $n$ natural numbers?

Let m and n be natural numbers, and consider the set of all possible products of m (not necessarily distinct) elements from the set $\{1,2,\ldots,n\}$, that is consider the set $\{1^{a_1} \cdot 2^{...
Hujdurovic's user avatar
20 votes
3 answers
1k views

Size of set of integers with all sums of two distinct elements giving squares

Are there arbitrarily large sets $\mathcal S=\{a_1,\ldots,a_n\}$ of strictly positive integers such that all sums $a_i+a_j$ of two distinct elements in $\mathcal S$ are squares? Considering subsets in ...
Roland Bacher's user avatar
18 votes
4 answers
2k views

Number of vectors so that no two subset sums are equal

Consider all $10$-tuple vectors each element of which is either $1$ or $0$. It is very easy to select a set $v_1,\dots,v_{10}= S$ of $10$ such vectors so that no two distinct subsets of vectors $S_1 \...
Simd's user avatar
  • 3,195
11 votes
1 answer
728 views

What is the smallest cardinality of a set A whose difference A-A contains $n$ consequtive integer numbers?

Problem. What is the smallest cardinality $d(n)$ of a set $A$ of integer numbers such that the difference set $A-A=\{a-b:a,b\in A\}$ contains $n$ consequtive integer numbers? It can be shown that $(1+...
Taras Banakh's user avatar
  • 40.8k
10 votes
3 answers
543 views

Is each finite group multifactorizable?

Definition. A finite group $G$ is called multifactorizable if for any positive integer numbers $a_1,\dots,a_n$ with $a_1\cdots a_n=|G|$ there are subsets $A_1,\dots,A_n\subset G$ such that $A_1\cdots ...
Taras Banakh's user avatar
  • 40.8k
10 votes
1 answer
542 views

Who was/were the first to note that if $\sum_{x \in X} \frac{1}{x} < \infty$ then the natural density of $X$ is zero?

It is a result of folklore that the natural density of a set $X$ of positive integers such that $\sum_{x \in X} \frac{1}{x} < \infty$ is zero. This is reproved, e.g., in T. Šalát's paper: ...
Salvo Tringali's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
154 views

Trisecting $3$-fold sumsets: is the middle part always thick?

Here is a truly minimalistic and seemingly basic question which should have a simple solution (I hope it does). Let $A$ be a finite set of integers with the smallest element $0$ and the largest ...
Seva's user avatar
  • 22.8k
6 votes
1 answer
466 views

Ref. request: Additive probability measure on $\mathcal P({\bf N})$ supplies subset of $\mathbf R$ without Baire property

ZFC proves, among the other things, the existence of a (finitely) additive probability measure $\theta: \mathcal P(\mathbf N) \to \mathbf R$ on the power set of $\mathbf N$ such that $\theta(X) = 0$ ...
Salvo Tringali's user avatar
5 votes
2 answers
494 views

Anticoncentration of the convolution of two characteristic functions

Edit: This is a question related to my other post, stated in a much more concrete way I think. I am interested in anything (ideas, references) related to the following problem: Suppose that $A \...
Maciej Skorski's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
237 views

Can we do better than random when constructing dense $k$-AP-free sets

We write $[N]$ to denote $\{1,\dots,N\}$. We say a set $S$ is $k$-AP-free if it lacks non-trivial arithmetic progressions of length $k$. We define the 2-color van der Waerden number, $w(2;k)$, to be ...
Zach Hunter's user avatar
  • 3,393
3 votes
2 answers
508 views

Proof of Pollard's inequality

Let $A, B \subseteq \mathbb{Z}_p$, $p$ prime, $|B| \leq |A|$. If $N_t$ denotes the number of elements of $\mathbb{Z}_p$ having at least $t$ representations as $a+b$, $a \in A, b \in B$, Pollard's ...
user68520's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
255 views

Is every sufficiently dense well mixed set an additive basis?

Let $B \subset \mathbb{N}$ be a set of natural numbers such that $|B \cap [1,N]| \sim N^\gamma$, for some $\gamma > 0$ with the following property: For any pair of positive integers $k,n$ we ...
Stanley Yao Xiao's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
172 views

Only trivial solution to a pair of constrained linear diophantine equations

Given positive integer $n$, we are looking for a set of $n$ positive integers $a_i$. The following linear integer program must have only the trivial integer solution of all ones. $0 \le x_i \le \frac{...
joro's user avatar
  • 24.2k
1 vote
1 answer
194 views

Covering a finite ring with arithmetic progressions

Let $n\geq 2$ be a positive integer and $k$ be a number between $1$ and $n$. Recently, I came across the following question about $\mathbb Z/n\mathbb Z$ and I wonder if it was studied before. I'd be ...
Anton's user avatar
  • 1,573
0 votes
1 answer
652 views

Paradox in additive combinatorics

Let $S$ be an infinite set of positive integers. Let us define the following quantities: $N_S(z)$ is the number of elements of $S$, less or equal to $z$ $r_S(z)$ if the number of positive integer ...
Vincent Granville's user avatar
58 votes
2 answers
4k views

For a finite set A of positive reals, prove that the set A + A - A contains at least as many positive as negative elements

I am currently working on a proof that would need to use the following theorem that I cannot prove: "Let $A$ be a finite set of positive real numbers. Then, the set $A + A - A$ contains at least ...
Timo Reichert's user avatar
49 votes
3 answers
2k views

Is each squared finite group trivial?

A semigroup $S$ is defined to be squared if there exists a subset $A\subseteq S$ such that the function $A\times A\to S$, $(x,y)\mapsto xy$, is bijective. Problem: Is each squared finite group ...
Taras Banakh's user avatar
  • 40.8k
31 votes
2 answers
3k views

The Erdős-Turán conjecture or the Erdős' conjecture?

This has been bothering me for a while, and I can't seem to find any definitive answer. The following conjecture is well known in additive combinatorics: Conjecture: If $A\subset \mathbb{N}$ and $$\...
Eric Naslund's user avatar
  • 11.3k
28 votes
3 answers
872 views

Ordering subsets of the cyclic group to give distinct partial sums

Suppose that you are given a set $S$ of $k$ nonzero elements from $\mathbb{Z}_n$. Is it always possible to order the elements of $S$, say $a_1,a_2,\dots,a_k$ in such a way that the partial sums $a_1,...
Ian Wanless's user avatar
26 votes
1 answer
3k views

Monochromatic triangles in every two-coloring of the plane?

An old problem (possibly due to Erdős and Graham?): given a triangle $T$ and a two-coloring of the plane, does there necessary exist a monochromatic congruent copy of $T$? Here "monochromatic" means ...
Matthew Kahle's user avatar
26 votes
3 answers
2k views

long enough interval of integers to solve a simultaneous congruence

Let $a$, $b$ be two coprime natural numbers. Let $A \subseteq \{0,1,\ldots, a-1\}$ and $B \subseteq \{0,1,\ldots,b-1\}$ be two nonempty sets, which we think of as sets of residues mod $a$ and $b$ ...
Labrador's user avatar
  • 285
26 votes
0 answers
899 views

Which sets of roots of unity give a polynomial with nonnegative coefficients?

The question in brief:   When does a subset $S$ of the complex $n$th roots of unity have the property that $$\prod_{\alpha\, \in \,S} (z-\alpha)$$ gives a polynomial in $\mathbb R[z]$ with ...
Louis Deaett's user avatar
  • 1,513
24 votes
2 answers
7k views

EGZ theorem (Erdős-Ginzburg-Ziv)

Erdős, Ginzburg and Ziv prove the following: Let $n \geq 1$ and $a_1,\ldots, a_{2n-1}\in \mathbb{Z}$. There exist distinct $i_1,\ldots , i_n$ such that $$ a_{i_1} + \cdots + a_{i_n} \equiv 0 \pmod{n}....
Portland's user avatar
  • 2,752
18 votes
3 answers
1k views

Decomposing a finite group as a product of subsets

My friend Wim van Dam asked me the following question: For every finite group $G$, does there exist a subset $S\subset G$ such that $\left|S\right| = O(\sqrt{\left|G\right|})$ and $S\times S = G$? ...
Scott Aaronson's user avatar
17 votes
2 answers
2k views

A proof of Van der Waerden's theorem using a weakened form of Szemeredi's theorem

Van der Waerden's theorem states that any colouring of the integers in a finite number of colours has monochromatic arithmetic progressions of arbitrary length. Szemerédi's Theorem is a dramatic ...
Ivan Meir's user avatar
  • 4,782
17 votes
1 answer
1k views

Sum and product estimate over integers, rationals, and reals

My question is the following: is finding a lower bound for $|A+A\cdot A|$ (as a function of $|A|$) where $A$ is any finite subset of the positive integers equivalent to finding the same lower bound ...
George Shakan's user avatar
16 votes
2 answers
2k views

Sets that are not sum of subsets

Let $\mathcal P$ be the set of finite subsets of $\mathbb Z_{\geq 0}$ , each of them contains $0$. We say that $A \in \mathcal P$ is indecomposable if it is not $B+C$ (the sum set of $B,C$) with $B,C\...
Hailong Dao's user avatar
  • 30.3k
15 votes
1 answer
972 views

Sets with both additive and multiplicative gaps

I feel that the following problem should have a clean and simple solution, but so far I couldn't find one. Suppose that $p$ is a prime, and that $A\subseteq\mathbb Z/p\mathbb Z$ is a set such that ...
Seva's user avatar
  • 22.8k
15 votes
1 answer
404 views

What is the smallest cardinality of a self-linked set in a finite cyclic group?

A subset $A$ of a group $G$ is defined to be self-linked if $A\cap gA\ne\emptyset$ for all $g\in G$. This happens if and only if $AA^{-1}=G$. For a finite group $G$ denote by $sl(G)$ the smallest ...
Taras Banakh's user avatar
  • 40.8k
14 votes
1 answer
616 views

Minimal "sumset basis" in the discrete linear space $\mathbb F_2^n$

For a set $C\subseteq \mathbb F_2^n$, let $2C=C+C:=\{\alpha+\beta\colon \alpha,\beta\in C\}$. I want to find $C$ of the smallest possible size such that $2C=\mathbb F_2^n$. Let $m(n)$ be the size of a ...
pointer's user avatar
  • 197
14 votes
3 answers
1k views

Density of all n such that 2^n-1 is square free

Is it true that the set $$S:=\{n\in \mathbb N\ |\ 2^n-1 \ \mbox{ is square free}\}$$ has positive density? What can we say when we replace $2^n-1$ with $\frac{a^n-1}{a-1}$?
Omid Hatami's user avatar
14 votes
1 answer
2k views

On the $L^1$-norm of certain exponential sums

I am stuck with an elementary-looking problem, which does not belong to my usual field of research so I eventually decided to ask it on MO. Let $S$ be a finite set of integers. For $P$ a subset of $S$,...
Joël's user avatar
  • 25.7k
13 votes
1 answer
454 views

Near-linear mappings from $\mathbb F_p$ to $\mathbb R$

$\newcommand{\F}{{\mathbb F}}$ $\newcommand{\R}{{\mathbb R}}$ $\renewcommand{\phi}{\varphi}$ Let $p\ge 5$ be a prime. If the functions $\phi_1,\phi_2,\phi_3\colon\F_p\to\R$ satisfy $\phi_1(x)+\...
Seva's user avatar
  • 22.8k
12 votes
2 answers
867 views

Arithmetic progressions modulo $p$ under the squaring map

I feel that the following problem should be known, but I'm not sure where to look for it. Fix a real constant $\frac{1}{2} \ge \epsilon > 0$. For varying primes $p$, Let $A_p$ denote the set of ...
user avatar
12 votes
2 answers
513 views

Small set such that $\{1 , \ldots , n\} \cdot A = \mathbb{Z} / p \mathbb{Z}$

Let $p$ be a large prime and $n < p$. What is the smallest size of a set $A \subset \mathbb{Z} / p \mathbb{Z}$ such that $A \cdot \{1 , \ldots , n\} = \mathbb{Z} / p \mathbb{Z}$? Here $\cdot$ ...
George Shakan's user avatar