Normal sequences over finite abelian groups (Q2431619)

Let \(G\) be an additive finite abelian group with \(|G|>1\). It is well known that \(G=C_{n_1}\oplus \cdots \oplus C_{n_r}\) with \(1<n_1|\cdots |n_r\). We call \(r(G)=r\) the rank of \(G\). Let \(D(G)\) be the Davenport constant of \(G\), which is defined as the smallest integer \(d\) such that every sequence \(S\) over \(G\) of length \(|S|\geq d\) contains a nonempty zero-sum subsequence. If \(|S|\geq D(G)\), it is easy to see from the definition of \(D(G)\) that \(S\) contains a zero-sum subsequence of length at least \(|S|-D(G)+1\). We call \(S\) a normal sequence over \(G\) if \(|S|\geq D(G)\) and \(S\) contains no zero-sum subsequence of length larger than \(|S|-D(G)+1\). The following two open problems on normal sequences were formulated in [the reviewer and \textit{J. J. Zhuang}, Eur. J. Comb. 27, No. 6, 777--787 (2006; Zbl 1091.11008)]. \textbf{Conjecture 1.} Let \(S\) be a normal sequence over \(G\) of length \(|S|=D(G)+k\). If \(k\in [0,n_1-1]\) then \(S=0^{k+1}T\) where \(T\) is a zero-sum free sequence of length \(|T|=D(G)-1\). \textbf{Conjecture 2.} Let \(W\) be a zero-sum free sequence over \(G\) of length \(|W|=D(G)-1\). If there exists an element \(g\in G\) such that \(g^{\mathrm{ord}(g)-1}|W\) then \(\mathrm{ord}(g)\geq n_1\), where \(\mathrm{ord}(g)\) denotes the order of \(g\). The authors prove that Conjecture 2 implies Conjecture 1. On other hand, it is easy to see that Conjecture 1 implies Conjecture 2. So, the authors actually prove that the two conjectures above are equivalent. As a consequence, they obtain that the two conjectures above hold true for some groups including (1) \(G\) is a finite abelian \(p\)-group for some prime \(p\) and (2) \(r(G)\leq 2\).