Sums of sets of abelian group elements (Q2009159)

Let \(G\) be a finite abelian group and let \(S=\{g_1,\ldots, g_{\ell}\}\) be a nonempty finite subset. We define \(\Sigma(S)=\{\sum_{i\in I}g_i\colon \emptyset\neq I\subset [1,\ell]\}\) and we say \(S\) is zero-sum free if \(0\not\in \Sigma(S)\). For every positive integer \(k\), the invariant \(f(k)\) is defined to be the maximal integer \(t\) such that for every finite abelian group \(G\) and every zero-sum free subset \(S\subset G\) with \(|S|=k\), we have \(|\Sigma(S)|\ge t\). This invariant \(f(k)\) was first studied by R. B. Eggleton and P. Erdős in 1972. The best lower bound for large \(k\) is due to J. E. Olson, who proved that \(f(k)\ge k^2/9\). In this paper, the authors improve the lower bound to \(k^2/6\) and they also investigate some related problems.