On sum sets of Sidon sets. II (Q1895079)

Let \(A\subseteq \mathbb{N}= \{1, 2,\dots\}\) and \(S_A= \{a+ a'\mid a,a'\in A\}\). If for every \(n\in \mathbb{N}\) the equation \(a+ a'=n\); \(a\leq a'\); \(a,a'\in A\) has at most one solution then \(A\) is called a Sidon set. At first blocks of consecutive elements in \(S_A\) for Sidon sets \(A\) are studied. For \(n\in \mathbb{N}\) let \(H(n)= \max\{h\in \mathbb{N}\mid \{m+1, m+2, \dots, m+h\} \subseteq S_A\), \(m\leq n\}\) taken over all Sidon sets \(A\subseteq \{1, 2, \dots, n\}\). It is shown that \(n^{1/3}\ll H(n)\ll n^{1/2}\). The lower bound is obtained by construction of a suitable infinite Sidon set while the upper bound is a consequence of the following much sharper result, choosing \(l=[200 n^{1/2}]\): For all Sidon sets \(A\subseteq \{1, 2,\dots,n\}\) and all \(l\in\mathbb{N}\), \(k\in \mathbb{Z}\) we have \[ | S_A\cap [k+1, k+l]|< {\textstyle {1\over 2}} l+ 7l^{1/2} n^{1/4}. \] Let \(n\in \mathbb{N}\). For \(A\subseteq \mathbb{N}\), \(| A|=n\) the minimum of \(|S_A|\) is obtained by arithmetic progressions \(A\) and the maximum by Sidon sets \(A\). Therefore one can expect that a well-covering of a Sidon set by arithmetic progressions is impossible, even by generalized arithmetic progressions \(P= \{e+ x_1 f_1+ \cdots+ x_m f_m\mid x_i\in \{1, \dots, l_i\}\) for \(i= 1,\dots, m\}\), where \(m,l_1, \dots, l_m\in \mathbb{N}\); \(e,f_1, \dots, f_m\in \mathbb{Z}\). Let \(\dim P=m\) and \(Q(P)= l_1 l_2 \dots l_m\) be the dimension and size of \(P\). A measure of well-covering for \(A\) by generalized arithmetic progressions (g.a.p.) of dimension \(m\) is given by the minimum \(D_m (A)\) of the terms \(t\sum^t_{j=1} Q(P_j)\) taken over all coverings \(A\subseteq \bigcup^t_{j=1} P_j\) where \(P_j\) are g.a.p. with \(\dim P_j=m\) for \(j=1, \dots, t\). If \(D_m (A)\) is close to \(|A|\) then \(A\) can be covered by ``few'' g.a.p.. If \(D_m (a)\) is close to \(|A|^2\) we have the opposite situation. For all finite Sidon sets \(A\) it is shown that \(D_m(A)> 2^{-m-1} |A|^2\). On the other hand for all \(m\in \mathbb{N}\) there exists a finite Sidon set \(A\) such that \(D_m(A)\leq {1\over 2}| A|^2\). These two theorems are proved in a more general form for \(B_2[g]\) sets.