On two additive problems (Q911638)

Let \({\mathcal A}\) be a set of nonnegative integers. P. Erdős and R. Freud conjectured that if \({\mathcal A}\) satisfies \({\mathcal A}\subset \{1,2,...,3n\}\) and \(|{\mathcal A}| \geq n+1\) then there is a power of 2 that can be written as a sum of distinct elements of \({\mathcal A}\). Very similarly if \({\mathcal A}\subset \{1,2,...,4n\}\) and \(|{\mathcal A}| \geq n+1\) then there is a square-free number that can be written as a sum of distinct elements of \({\mathcal A}\). Both problems are answered in the affirmative in this paper. The proof is based on the Hardy-Littlewood method and elementary considerations. In this way at least \(c\log n\) summands from \({\mathcal A}\) are necessary. Recently, \textit{M. B. Nathanson} and \textit{A. Sárközy} [Acta Arith. 54, 147-154 (1989; Zbl 0693.10040)] showed that a bounded number of summands for \({\mathcal A}\) is enough.