All Questions
28 questions
5
votes
1
answer
297
views
Expected number of coin flips before you see a $k$-term arithmetic progression of heads
Let $\{X_i\}_{i \in \mathbb Z_+} $ be independent fair coin flips. Write $S := \{i \in \mathbb Z_+\, | \, X_i \text{ is heads}\}$, and define, for an integer $k \geq 3$,
$$Y := \inf \{n \in \mathbb N \...
- 6,155
5
votes
1
answer
151
views
Beating trivial bound for $k$-AP-free sets in characteristic $k$
Given integers $k,n\ge 1$, I shall write $\Bbb{Z}_k^n := (\Bbb{Z}/k\Bbb{Z})^n$.
Fix $k\ge 3$. Let $r_k(\Bbb{Z}_k^n)$ denote the cardinality of the largest $A\subset \Bbb{Z}_k^n$, such that $A$ does ...
- 3,499
3
votes
0
answers
187
views
Szemerédi’s theorem in really dense sets
This question is inspired by Tao’s answer in this post. I have thought about this occasionally for several months without anything concrete.
Question:
Given $\delta>0$ and $k\ge 3$, let $N= N_k(\...
- 3,499
4
votes
0
answers
157
views
Multidimensional van der Waerden, bounds for squares
Given $r$, let $f(r)$ be the smallest $N$ such that for any $r$-coloring $C:\{1,\dots,N\}^2 \to \{1,\dots,r\}$, there exists $x,y,d\neq 0$ such that $C((x,y)) = C((x+d,y))= C((x,y+d))=C((x+d,y+d))$.
I ...
- 3,499
3
votes
0
answers
168
views
On Behrend's construction
Fix $\alpha>0$. Does there exist $\epsilon = \epsilon(\alpha)>0$ such that if $S\subset [N]:=\{1,\dots,N\}$ has $\ge \alpha N$ elements, then for any function $f:S\to [0,1]$, there exist some ...
- 3,499
3
votes
0
answers
328
views
Behrend's construction vs. Triangle removal lemma
I was reading Zhao's book "Graph theory and additive combinatorics" and on page 71 I came across Remark 2.5.4 which I'd like to understand.
Theorem 2.3.1 (Triangle removal lemma) For all $\...
- 330
1
vote
0
answers
84
views
Bounds for Szemerédi’s theorem for GAP’s
Let a $(k,D)$-AP refer to sets of the form $\{n_0+l_1n_1+\dotsb +l_Dn_D: l_1,\dotsc,l_D \in [k]\}$ with cardinality $k^D$ (i.e. a proper $D$-dimensional GAP with width $k$).
Let $r(N,k,D)$ be the ...
- 3,499
5
votes
2
answers
268
views
Progressions in sumset or complement
Fix $\epsilon>0$.
For all large $N$, does there exist $A\subset [N]:=\{1,\dots,N\}$ such that both $A+A$ and $A^c:=[N]\setminus A$ lack arithmetic progressions of length $N^\epsilon$?
I am aware ...
- 3,499
9
votes
3
answers
1k
views
A set with positive upper density whose difference set does not contain an infinite arithmetic progression
For $S \subset \mathbb{N}$ define $S-S=\{x-y:x \in S, y \in S\}$.
As noted below there is a simple example showing that a set $S \subset \mathbb{N}$ with positive upper density has a sumset $S+S=\{x+y:...
- 4,862
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 ...
- 4,862
5
votes
0
answers
215
views
Showing that Fourier pseudorandomness is insufficient for $k=4$ case (four arithmetic progressions)
I wish to show that the Fourier pseudorandomness is insufficient to count the number of 4-term arithmetic progression.
Let $A \subset \mathbb{Z}/N\mathbb{Z}$ be a subset of a cyclic group $\mathbb{Z}/...
7
votes
1
answer
2k
views
Is there any relationship between Szemerédi's theorem and Sunflower conjecture?
I have observed some similar things between a reformulation of the Sunflower conjecture (see also conjecture 1.3 in Improved bounds for the sunflower lemma) and Szemerédi's theorem such that for ...
5
votes
0
answers
226
views
Large finite subsets of Euclidean space with no isosceles (or approximately isosceles) triangles
Here's a question in combinatorial geometry which feels very much like other questions I'm familiar with but which I can't see how to get a hold of. I'll actually propose two different questions on ...
- 19.2k
1
vote
0
answers
96
views
large arithmetic progression modulo p (II)
Is it possible to construct a $B$ $\subseteq$ $Z_p(=Z/pZ)$ of cardinal $cp^{\frac{1}{3}}$, for some constant $c$, such that there exists an arithmetic progression of size $c_1p^{\frac{2}{3}}$, for ...
3
votes
0
answers
65
views
What's known about $X$ when $|X(n) + X(n)| < kn$, $n \in \mathbb{N}$, absolute constant $k$?
Let $X$ be an infinite sequence of integers$$x_1 < x_2 < x_3 < \ldots,$$and let $X(n)$ be the set$$\{x_1, x_2, \ldots, x_n\}.$$
Question. What is known about $X$ when we have$$|X(n) + X(n)| &...
- 31
3
votes
1
answer
277
views
(Extremal) arithmetic combinatorics in non-abelian groups
Roth's Theorem states that any subset $A$ of $\{1, \dots, n\}$ with no solution to the equation $$x + y = 2z,\, (x, y, z) \in A^3,\, x \neq y$$ has size $o(n)$. Similar results hold when dealing with ...
- 1,561
4
votes
0
answers
546
views
The original proof of Szemerédi's Theorem
Nowadays there are plenty of different proofs of the celebrated Szemerédi's Theorem but for historical reasons I would like to read and understand the original proof. The proof is very tricky and, for ...
- 1,561
1
vote
0
answers
118
views
Consecutive integers divisible by consecutive small numbers
Given $n$, what is the largest set of consecutive integers in $[n,2n]$ can we have so that each integer is divisible by a distinct element from $[\log n,2\log n]$ (no partiular order)? So apriori I am ...
- 13.9k
8
votes
1
answer
571
views
Subsets of [1..N] with no three-term arithmetic progressions and no large gaps
Let S be a subset of [1..N] containing no three-term arithmetic progression, and let h(S) be the size of the largest gap between two consecutive elements of S. By Roth's theorem, h(S) has to grow ...
- 19.2k
7
votes
1
answer
839
views
Minimum cardinality of a difference set in $R^n$
Cross-posted from https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/65195/minimum-cardinality-of-a-difference-set-in-mathbb-rn.
Given a finite set $S$ of $m$ points in $\mathbb R^n$ that do not all lie in the ...
- 567
2
votes
3
answers
745
views
Arithmetic progressions of length 3 in subset of Z_n of size n^d
Let $A\subset\mathbb{Z}/n\mathbb{Z}$ such that: $|A|>n^{d}$ ($0< d <1$).
Let $C=\{(x,y,2y-x)\in A\times A \times A\}$ be the set of $3$-term arithmetic progressions within $A$.
[The ...
- 21
6
votes
3
answers
492
views
Structure of nonaveraging sets of integers
A set of integers is said to be nonaveraging if it contains no three-term arithmetic progression. I call a nonaveraging subset of $\lbrace 1,2, \ldots ,n \rbrace$ optimal when it has maximal ...
- 3,595
2
votes
0
answers
1k
views
Fun question in additive combinatorics
It is easy to see that for a finite set of integers $A$ of cardinality $n$, the cardinality of the sumset $A+A$ satisfies
$$
2n-1\leq |A+A|\leq \frac{n(n+1)}{2}.
$$
The lower bound is essentially ...
- 3,626
6
votes
1
answer
452
views
Bounds on the size of sets not containing a given finite pattern
Recall the following version of Szemerédi's Theorem: let $r_k(N)$ be the largest cardinality of a subset of $[N]:=\{1,\ldots, N\}$ which does not contain an arithmetic progression of length $k$. Then, ...
- 4,660
6
votes
2
answers
1k
views
Inverse Length 3 Arithmetic Progression Problem for sets with positive upper density
It is a famous theorem of Roth, which Szemerédi famously generalized, that if a set of natural numbers has positive upper density then it contains arithmetic progressions of length $k$. The famous ...
- 26.9k
24
votes
4
answers
3k
views
What is the shortest route to Roth's theorem?
Roth first proved that any subset of the integers with positive density contains a three term arithmetic progression in 1953. Since then, many other proofs have emerged (I can think of eight off the ...
- 7,013
8
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Homogeneous arithmetic progressions in difference sets
I have a nasty feeling that I ought to be able to answer this question, but I've got other things to think about right now and I'm interested in the answer just so that I can reply to a mathematical ...
- 29k
15
votes
1
answer
835
views
Goldbach-type theorems from dense models?
I'm not a number theorist, so apologies if this is trivial or obvious.
From what I understand of the results of Green-Tao-Ziegler on additive combinatorics in the primes, the main new technical tool ...
- 12.6k