On a problem in additive number theory (Q5920248): Difference between revisions

Let \({\mathbb N}=\{0,1,2,\dots\}\) be the set of all natural numbers. For a sequence of integers \(A=\{a_1<a_2<\cdots\}\), let \(P(A)=\{\sum\varepsilon_i a_i\mid\varepsilon_i=0,1,\;\sum\varepsilon_i<\infty\}\). The authors prove that if \(B=\{b_1<b_2<\cdots\}\) is a sequence of integers with \(b_1\in\{4,7,8\}\cup\{b\,| \,b\geq 11, b\in {\mathbb N}\}\) and \(b_{n+1}\geq 3 b_n+5\) for all \(n\geq 1\), then there exists a sequence of positive integers \(A=\{a_1<a_2<\cdots\}\) for which \(P(A)= {\mathbb N}\backslash B\). On the other hand, if \(B=\{b_1<b_2<\cdots\}\) is a sequence of positive integers with \(b_1\in\{3,5,6,9,10\}\) or \(b_2=3b_1+4\) or \(b_1=1\), \(b_2=9\) or \(b_1=2\), \(b_2=15\), then there is no sequence of positive integers \(A=\{a_1<a_2<\cdots\}\) for which \(P(A)= {\mathbb N}\backslash B\).