An application of graph pebbling to zero-sum sequences in abelian groups

For an additive group $\Gamma$ the sequence $S = (g_1, \ldots, g_t)$ of elements of $\Gamma$ is a zero-sum sequence if $g_1 + \cdots + g_t = 0_\Gamma$. The cross number of $S$ is defined to be the sum $\sum_{i=1}^k 1/|g_i|$, where $|g_i|$ denotes the order of $g_i$ in $\Gamma$. Call $S$ good if it contains a zero-sum subsequence with cross number at most 1. In 1993, Geroldinger proved that if $\Gamma$ is abelian then every length $|\Gamma|$ sequence of its elements is good, g...

Call a graph $G$ zero-forcing for a finite abelian group $\mathcal{G}$ if for every $\ell : V(G) \to \mathcal{G}$ there is a connected $A \subseteq V(G)$ with $\sum_{a \in A} \ell(a) = 0$. The problem we pose here is to characterise the class of zero-forcing graphs. It is shown that a connected graph is zero-forcing for the cyclic group of prime order $p$ if and only if it has at least $p$ vertices. When $|\mathcal{G}|$ is not prime, however, being zero-forcing is intimately ...

The purpose of the article is to provide an unified way to formulate zero-sum invariants. Let $G$ be a finite additive abelian group. Let $B(G)$ denote the set consisting of all nonempty zero-sum sequences over G. For $\Omega \subset B(G$), let $d_{\Omega}(G)$ be the smallest integer $t$ such that every sequence $S$ over $G$ of length $|S|\geq t$ has a subsequence in $\Omega$.We provide some first results and open problems on $d_{\Omega}(G)$.

In this paper, we study a combinatorial problem originating in the following conjecture of Erdos and Lemke: given any sequence of n divisors of n, repetitions being allowed, there exists a subsequence the elements of which are summing to n. This conjecture was proved by Kleitman and Lemke, who then extended the original question to a problem on a zero-sum invariant in the framework of finite Abelian groups. Building among others on earlier works by Alon and Dubiner and by the...

Suppose $G$ is a finite abelian group and $S=g_{1}\cdots g_{l}$ is a sequence of elements in $G$. For any element $g$ of $G$ and $A\subseteq\mathbb{Z}\backslash\left\{ 0\right\} $, let $N_{A,g}(S)$ denote the number of subsequences $T=\prod_{i\in I}g_{i}$ of $S$ such that $\sum_{i\in I}a_{i}g_{i}=g$ , where $I\subseteq\left\{ 1,\ldots,l\right\}$ and $a_{i}\in A$. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the lower bound for $N_{A,0}(S)$. In particular, we prove that $N_{A,0...

Suppose $G$ is a finite abelian group and $S$ is a sequence of elements in $G$. For any element $g$ of $G$, let $N_g(S)$ denote the number of subsequences of $S$ with sum $g$. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the lower bound for $N_g(S)$. In particular, we prove that either $N_g(S)=0$ or $N_g(S) \ge 2^{|S|-D(G)+1}$, where $D(G)$ is the smallest positive integer $\ell$ such that every sequence over $G$ of length at least $\ell$ has a nonempty zero-sum subsequence. W...

Let $G$ be a finite abelian group and let $A\subseteq \mathbb{Z}$ be nonempty. Let $D_A(G)$ denote the minimal integer such that any sequence over $G$ of length $D_A(G)$ must contain a nontrivial subsequence $s_1... s_r$ such that $\sum_{i=1}^{r}w_is_i=0$ for some $w_i\in A$. Let $E_A(G)$ denote the minimal integer such that any sequence over $G$ of length $E_A(G)$ must contain a subsequence of length $|G|$, $s_1... s_{|G|}$, such that $\sum_{i=1}^{|G|}w_is_i=0$ for some $w_i...

In this paper, we obtain a characterization of short normal sequences over a finite Abelian p-group, thus answering positively a conjecture of Gao for a variety of such groups. Our main result is deduced from a theorem of Alon, Friedland and Kalai, originally proved so as to study the existence of regular subgraphs in almost regular graphs. In the special case of elementary p-groups, Gao's conjecture is solved using Alon's Combinatorial Nullstellensatz. To conclude, we show t...

Let $G$ be a finite abelian group and $S$ a sequence with elements of $G$. Let $|S|$ denote the length of $S$ and $k$ an integer with $k\in [1, |S|]$. Let $\Sigma_{k}(S) \subset G$ denote the set of group elements which can be expressed as a sum of a subsequence of $S$ with length $k$. Let $\Sigma(S)=\cup_{k=1}^{|S|}\Sigma_{k}(S)$ and $\Sigma_{\geq k}(S)=\cup_{t=k}^{|S|}\Sigma_{t}(S)$. It is known that if $0\not\in \Sigma(S)$, then $|\Sigma(S)|\geq |S|+|\mathrm{supp}(S)|-1$, ...

In this paper, we study the minimal number of elements of maximal order within a zero-sumfree sequence in a finite Abelian p-group. For this purpose, in the general context of finite Abelian groups, we introduce a new number, for which lower and upper bounds are proved in the case of finite Abelian p-groups. Among other consequences, the method that we use here enables us to show that, if we denote by exp(G) the exponent of the finite Abelian p-group G which is considered, th...