Structural approach to subset sum problems (Q506621)

The author discusses results and ideas behind some proofs obtained jointly with \textit{V. H. Vu} [Proc. Lond. Math. Soc. (3) 90, No. 2, 273--296 (2005; Zbl 1073.11008); J. Am. Math. Soc. 19, No. 1, 119--169 (2006; Zbl 1088.11012); Ann. Math. (2) 163, No. 1, 1--35 (2006; Zbl 1146.11006)] on the length of arithmetic progressions and generalized arithmetic progressions in \(\ell\)-fold sumsets of the form \[ \ell \mathcal {A}=\{a_1+\dots +a_\ell \mid a_i\in \mathcal {A}\}\quad\text{and}\quad \ell^*\mathcal {A}=\{a_1+\dots +a_\ell \mid a_i\in \mathcal{A},\ a_1<a_2<\ldots<a_\ell\}, \] where \(\mathcal A\) is a set of integers. Applications of these results are discussed. For instance, in direction of Erdős' conjecture on complete sequences, Folkman's conjecture on subcomplete sequences, the number of \(x\)-sum-free sets or Olson's theorem.