Irrational numbers associated to sequences without geometric progressions

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Abstract: Let s and k be integers with s geq 2 and k geq 2. Let g_k^{(s)}(n) denote the cardinality of the largest subset of the set {1,2,..., n} that contains no geometric progression of length k whose common ratio is a power of s. Let r_k(ell) denote the cardinality of the largest subset of the set {0,1,2,ldots, ell -1} that contains no arithmetric progression of length k. The limit [ lim_{n ightarrow infty} frac{g_k^{(s)}(n)}{n} = (s-1) sum_{m=1}^{infty} left(frac{1}{s} ight)^{min left(r_k^{-1}(m) ight)} ] exists and converges to an irrational number.


Given integers \(s\geq2\), \(k\geq3\), let \(g_k^{(s)}(n)\) denote the cardinality of the largest subset of \(\{1,2,\dots,n\}\) that contains no geometric progression of length \(k\) whose common ratio is a power of \(s\). Similarly, let \(r_k(\ell)\) denote the cardinality of the largest subset of \(\{0,1,\dots,\ell\}\) not containing an arithmetic progression of length \(k\), and \(r_k^{-1}(\ell)=\{\ell\in{\mathbb N} : r_k(\ell)=m\}\). The author prove that the limit \(\lim_{n\to\infty} g_k^{(s)}(n)/n\) exists and that it converges to \((s-1)\sum_{m=1}^\infty s^{-\min(r_k^{-1})(m)}=((s-1)^2/s)\sum_{\ell=1}^\infty r_k(\ell)/s^\ell\), where this common value is an irrational number. In the proof Szemerédi theorem is used. The irrationality statement is a special case of the following observation (Theorem 2): Let \((a_n)_{n=1}^\infty\) be an unbounded sequence of positive integers such that \(0\leq a_n-a_{n-1}\leq s-1\) for all \(n\geq2\). If \(a_n=o(n)\), then, for every integer \(s\geq 2\), the real number \(\sum_{n=1}^\infty a_n/s^n\) is irrational. Authors posed some open problems, e.g. whether the irrational number is transcendental, or whether Szemerédi theorem can be avoided.











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