On subsequence sums of a zero-sum free sequence (Q1010607)

Summary: Let \(G\) be a finite abelian group with exponent \(m\), and let \(S\) be a sequence of elements in \(G\). Let \(f(S)\) denote the number of elements in \(G\) which can be expressed as the sum over a nonempty subsequence of \(S\). In this paper, we show that, if \(|S|=m\) and \(S\) contains no nonempty subsequence with zero sum, then \(f(S)\geq 2m-1\). This answers an open question formulated by Gao and Leader. They proved the same result with the restriction \((m,6)=1\).