On short zero-sum subsequences of zero-sum sequences (Q456365)

Summary: Let \(G\) be a finite abelian group of exponent \(\exp(G)\). By \(D(G)\) we denote the smallest integer \(d\in \mathbb N\) such that every sequence over \(G\) of length at least \(d\) contains a nonempty zero-sum subsequence. By \(\eta(G)\) we denote the smallest integer \(d\in \mathbb N\) such that every sequence over \(G\) of length at least \(d\) contains a zero-sum subsequence \(T\) with length \(|T|\in [1,\exp(G)]\), such a sequence \(T\) will be called a short zero-sum sequence. Let \(C_0(G)\) denote the set consists of all integer \(t\in [D(G)+1,\eta(G)-1]\) such that every zero-sum sequence of length exactly \(t\) contains a short zero-sum subsequence. In this paper, we investigate the question whether \(C_0(G)\neq \emptyset\) for all non-cyclic finite abelian groups \(G\). Previous results showed that \(C_0(G)\neq \emptyset\) for the groups \(C_n^2 (n\geq 3)\) and \(C_3^3\). We show that more groups including the groups \(C_m\oplus C_n\) with \(3\leq m\mid n, C_{3^a5^b}^3, C_{3\times 2^a}^3, C_{3^a}^4\) and \(C_{2^b}^r (b\geq 2)\) have this property. We also determine \(C_0(G)\) completely for some groups including the groups of rank two, and some special groups with large exponent.