On non-minimal complements (Q2048374)

A nonempty subset \(A\) of a group \(G\) is called a left complement to a nonempty subset \(B\) of \(G\) if \(A \cdot B = G\). A minimal left complement to a subset \(B\) of \(G\) is a complement \(A\) such that no subset of \(A\) other than \(A\) is a complement to \(B\). A right complement and a minimal right complement are defined similarly. The notion of minimal complements appeared in the work of \textit{M. B. Nathanson} [Int. J. Number Theory 7, No. 8, 1999--2017 (2011; Zbl 1252.11007)] as a natural arithmetic analogue of the metric concepts of nets. The problems on minimal complements have been investigated in two directions: (i) to investigate the sets which admit minimal complements, and (ii) to investigate which sets occur as minimal complements. These types of problems are called the direct problems and the inverse problems, respectively. Most of the researches on the inverse problems have been focussed mainly on abelian groups. In the paper under review, the authors have proved some new results on the inverse problems and have concentrated on this type of problems in not necessarily abelian or finite groups. As a by-product, they obtain some new results on non-minimal complements in the group of integers, in any finitely generated abelian group of positive rank, and in any free abelian group of positive rank. Moreover, they obtain uncountably many examples of robust non-minimal complements in such groups.