Inverse Problems for Representation Functions in Additive Number Theory

In this talk we introduce several topics in combinatorial number theory which are related to groups; the topics include combinatorial aspects of covers of groups by cosets, and also restricted sumsets and zero-sum problems on abelian groups. A survey of known results and open problems on the topics is given in a popular way.

For a set $A$, let $P(A)$ be the set of all finite subset sums of $A$. In this paper, for a sequence of integers $B=\{1<b_1<b_2<\cdots\}$ and $3b_1+5\leq b_2\leq 6b_1+10$, we determine the critical value for $b_3$ such that there exists an infinite sequence $A$ of positive integers for which $P(A)=\mathbb{N}\setminus B$. This result shows that we partially solve the problem of Fang and Fang [`On an inverse problem in additive number theory', Acta Math. Hungar. 158(2019), 36-3...

Let $\mathbb{N}$ be the set of all nonnegative integers. For $S\subseteq \mathbb{N}$ and $n\in \mathbb{N}$, let $R_S(n)$ denote the number of solutions of the equation $n=s+s'$, $s, s'\in S$, $s<s'$. In this paper, we determine the structure of all sets $A$ and $B$ such that $A\cup B=\mathbb{N}\setminus\{r+mk:k\in\mathbb{N}\}$, $A\cap B=\emptyset$ and $R_{A}(n)=R_{B}(n)$ for every positive integer $n$, where $m$ and $r$ are two integers with $m\ge 2$ and $r\ge 0$.

Let F(x_1,...,x_m) = u_1 x_1 + ... + u_m x_m be a linear form with nonzero, relatively prime integer coefficients u_1,..., u_m. For any set A of integers, let F(A) = {F(a_1,...,a_m) : a_i in A for i=1,...,m}. The representation function associated with the form F is R_{A,F}(n) = card {(a_1,...,a_m) in A^m: F(a_1,..., a_m) = n}. The set A is a basis with respect to F for almost all integers the set Z\F(A) has asymptotic density zero. Equivalently, the representation function...

Suppose that an infinite set $A$ occupies at most $\frac{1}{2}(p+1)$ residue classes modulo $p$, for every sufficiently large prime $p$. The squares, or more generally the integer values of any quadratic, are an example of such a set. By the large sieve inequality the number of elements of $A$ that are at most $X$ is $O(X^{1/2})$, and the quadratic examples show that this is sharp. The simplest form of the inverse large sieve problem asks whether they are the only examples. W...

Given an infinite sequence of positive integers $\cA$, we prove that for every nonnegative integer $k$ the number of solutions of the equation $n=a_1+...+a_k$, $a_1,\,..., a_k\in \cA$, is not constant for $n$ large enough. This result is a corollary of our main theorem, which partially answers a question of S\'ark\"ozy and S\'os on representation functions for multilinear forms. Additionally, we obtain an Erd\H{o}s-Fuchs type result for a wide variety of representation functi...

For a set $A$ of nonnegative integers, let $R_2(A,n)$ denote the number of solutions to $n=a+a'$ with $a,a'\in A$, $a<a'$. Let $A_0$ be the Thue-Morse sequence and $B_0=\mathbb{N}\setminus A_0$. Let $A\subset \mathbb{N}$ and $N$ be a positive integer such that $R_2(A,n)=R_2(\mathbb{N}\setminus A,n)$ for all $n\geq 2N-1$. Previously, the first author proved that if $|A\cap A_0|=+\infty$ and $|A\cap B_0|=+\infty$, then $R_2(A,n)\geq \frac{n+3}{56N-52}-1$ for all $n\geq 1$. In t...

This is a survey of the use of Fourier analysis in additive combinatorics, with a particular focus on situations where it cannot be straightforwardly applied, but needs to be generalized first. Sometimes very satisfactory generalizations exist, while sometimes we have to make do with theories that have some of the desirable properties of Fourier analysis but not all of them. In the latter case, there are intriguing hints that there may be more satisfactory theories yet to be ...

These notes are a summary of the problem session discussions at various CANT (Combinatorial and Additive Number Theory Conferences). Currently they include all years from 2009 through 2019 (inclusive); the goal is to supplement this file each year. These additions will include the problem session notes from that year, and occasionally discussions on progress on previous problems. If you are interested in pursuing any of these problems and want additional information as to pro...

Let $\mathbb{N}$ denote the set of all nonnegative integers and $A$ be a subset of $\mathbb{N}$. Let $h\geq2$ and let $r_h(A,n)=\sharp \{ (a_1,\ldots,a_h)\in A^{h}: a_1+\cdots+a_h=n\}.$ The set $A$ is called an asymptotic basis of order $h$ if $r_h(A,n)\geq 1$ for all sufficiently large integers $n$. An asymptotic basis $A$ of order $h$ is minimal if no proper subset of $A$ is an asymptotic basis of order $h$. Recently, Chen and Tang resoved a problem of Nathanson on minimal ...