On the number of weighted zero-sum subsequences (Q6061184)

Let \(G\) be a finite additive abelian group with exponent \(n\) and \(S\) be a sequence over \(G\). It is known that \(2n -1\) is the smallest integer such that every sequence \(S\) over a cyclic group \(C_{n}\), with length \(2n - 1\), has a subsequence of length \(n\) with zero-sum, see P. Erdős et. al. [Bull. Res. Council Israel 10F, 41--43 (1961; Zbl 0063.00009)] and \textit{A. Geroldinger} and \textit{F. Halter-Koch} [Non-unique factorizations. Algebraic, combinatorial and analytic theory. Boca Raton, FL: Chapman \& Hall/CRC (2006; Zbl 1113.11002)].\par This raises the problem of determining the smallest positive integer \(l\) such that every sequence \(S = g_{1}\cdots g_{l}\) has a nonempty zero-sum subsequence. Such an integer \(l\) is called the Davenport constant of \(G\) and is denoted by \(D(G)\) see \textit{H. Davenport} [J. Lond. Math. Soc. 10, 30--32 (1935; Zbl 0010.38905)] and \textit{J. E. Olson} [J. Number Theory 1, 8--10 (1969; Zbl 0169.02003)]. \(D(G)\) is not known for a wide class of groups. For any \(g\) of \(G\), let \(N_{A,g}(S)\) (when \(A = \{1\}\) we write \(N_{g}(S))\) denote the number of weighted subsequences. \textit{J. E. Olson} [J. Number Theory 1, 195--199 (1969; Zbl 0167.28004)] proved that \(N_{0}(S) \geq 2^{\vert S\vert -D(G)+1}\) for every sequence \(S\) over \(G\) of length \(\vert S\vert \geq D(G)\). \textit{G. J. Chang} et al. [Electron. J. Comb. 18, No. 1, Research Paper P133, 10 p. (2011; Zbl 1293.11045)] found the lower bound of \(N_{g}(S)\) for any arbitrary \(g\) and classified the extremal sequences for \(\vert G\vert \) odd. \textit{A. Lemos} et al. [Int. J. Number Theory 15, No. 5, 1051--1057 (2019; Zbl 1459.11073)] found the lower bound of \(N_{A,0}(S)\) for \(A =\{1,\cdots,n-1\}\) and classified the extremal sequences for \(\vert G\vert \) odd. Here it is proved that \(N_{A,0}(S) \geq 2^{\vert S\vert -D_{A}(G)+1},\) when \(A =\{1,\cdots,d^{k}n-1\} \setminus \{d^{k}n/d^{i} : i\in [1,k]\}\) where \(k \) is a positive integer and \(D_{A}(G)\) is an \(A\)-weighted Davenport constant. Moreover, the structures of the extremal sequences for which equality holds for some groups has been characterized.