On sequences in cyclic groups with distinct partial sums (Q2170785): Difference between revisions

Summary: A subset of an abelian group is \textit{sequenceable} if there is an ordering \((x_1, \ldots, x_k)\) of its elements such that the partial sums \((y_0, y_1, \ldots, y_k)\), given by \(y_0 = 0\) and \(y_i = \sum_{j=1}^i x_j\) for \(1 \leqslant i \leqslant k\), are distinct, with the possible exception that we may have \(y_k = y_0 = 0\). We demonstrate the sequenceability of subsets of size \(k\) of \(\mathbb{Z}_n \setminus \{ 0 \}\) when \(n = mt\) in many cases, including when \(m\) is either prime or has all prime factors larger than \(k! /2\) for \(k \leqslant 11\) and \(t \leqslant 5\) and for \(k=12\) and \(t \leqslant 4\). We obtain similar, but partial, results for \(13 \leqslant k \leqslant 15\). This represents progress on a variety of questions and conjectures in the literature concerning the sequenceability of subsets of abelian groups, which we combine and summarize into the conjecture that if a subset of an abelian group does not contain \(0\) then it is sequenceable.