Extremal problems and the combinatorics of sumsets

For an interval [1,N] in the natural numbers, investigating subsets S of [1,N] such that |{(x,y) in S^2:x+y in S}|=0, known as sum-free sets, has attracted considerable attention. In this paper, we define r(S):=|{(x,y) in S^2: x+y in S}| and consider its behaviour as S ranges over the subsets of [1,N]. We obtain a comprehensive description of the spectrum of attainable r-values for the s-sets of [1,N], constructive existence results and structural characterizations for sets a...

Recently, additive combinatorics has blossomed into a vibrant area in mathematical sciences. But it seems to be a difficult area to define - perhaps because of a blend of ideas and techniques from several seemingly unrelated contexts which are used there. One might say that additive combinatorics is a branch of mathematics concerning the study of combinatorial properties of algebraic objects, for instance, Abelian groups, rings, or fields. This emerging field has seen tremend...

In this paper we rectify two previous results found in the literature. Our work leads to a new upper bound for the largest sum-free subset of $[1,n]$ with lowest value in $\left [\frac{n}{3},\frac{n}{2}\right ]$, and the identification of all patterns that can be used to form sum-free sets of maximum cardinality.

We study the concept of universal sets from the additive--combinatorial point of view. Among other results we obtain some applications of this type of uniformity to sets avoiding solutions to linear equations, and get an optimal upper bound for the covering number of general sumsets.

For a positive integer $h$ and a subset $A$ of a given finite abelian group, we let $hA$, $h \hat{\;} A$, and $h_{\pm}A$ denote the $h$-fold sumset, restricted sumset, and signed sumset of $A$, respectively. Here we review some of what is known and not yet known about the minimum sizes of these three types of sumsets, as well as their corresponding critical numbers. In particular, we discuss several new open direct and inverse problems.

In this paper we show examples for applications of the Bombieri-Lang conjecture in additive combinatorics, giving bounds on the cardinality of sumsets of squares and higher powers of integers. Using similar methods we give bounds on the sum-product problem for matchings.

In this paper some links between the density of a set of integers and the density of its sumset, product set and set of subset sums are presented.

In this note we find the optimal lower bound for the size of the sumsets $HA$ and $H\,\hat{}A$ over finite sets $H, A$ of nonnegative integers, where $HA = \bigcup_{h\in H} hA$ and $H\,\hat{}A = \bigcup_{h\in H} h\,\hat{}A$. We also find the underlying algebraic structure of the sets $A$ and $H$ for which the size of the sumsets $HA$ and $H\,\hat{}A$ is minimum.

An MSTD set is a finite set of integers with more sums than differences. It is proved that, for infinitely many positive integers $k$, there are infinitely many affinely inequivalent MSTD sets of cardinality $k$. There are several related open problems.

Let A be a subset of a finite abelian group G. We say that A is sum-free if there is no solution of the equation x + y = z, with x, y, z belonging to the set A. Let SF(G) denotes the set of all sum-free subets of $G$ and $\sigma(G)$ denotes the number $ n^{-1}(\log_2 |SF(G)|) $. In this article we shall improve the error term in the asymptotic formula of $\sigma(G)$ which was obtained recently by Ben Green and Ruzsa. The methods used are a slight refinement of methods develop...