On weighted zero-sum sequences

Extremal set theory (05D05) Other combinatorial number theory (11B75) Arithmetic and combinatorial problems involving abstract finite groups (20D60) Finite abelian groups (20K01)

Abstract: Let G be a finite additive abelian group with exponent exp(G)=n>1 and let A be a nonempty subset of {1,...,n-1}. In this paper, we investigate the smallest positive integer

m

, denoted by s_A(G), such that any sequence {c_i}_{i=1}^m with terms from G has a length n=exp(G) subsequence {c_{i_j}}_{j=1}^n for which there are a_1,...,a_n in A such that sum_{j=1}^na_ic_{i_j}=0. When G is a p-group, A contains no multiples of p and any two distinct elements of A are incongruent mod p, we show that s_A(G) is at most

l c e i l D (G) / | A | c e i l + e x p (G) - 1

if |A| is at least (D(G)-1)/(exp(G)-1), where D(G) is the Davenport constant of G and this upper bound for s_A(G)in terms of |A| is essentially best possible. In the case A={1,-1}, we determine the asymptotic behavior of s_{{1,-1}}(G) when exp(G) is even, showing that, for finite abelian groups of even exponent and fixed rank, s_{{1,-1}}(G)=exp(G)+log_2|G|+O(log_2log_2|G|) as exp(G) tends to the infinity. Combined with a lower bound of

e x p (G) + s u m i = 1 r l f l o o r l o g_{2} n_{i} f l o o r

, where

with 1<n_1|... |n_r, this determines s_{{1,-1}}(G), for even exponent groups, up to a small order error term. Our method makes use of the theory of L-intersecting set systems. Some additional more specific values and results related to s_{{1,-1}}(G) are also computed.

Review text

In zero-sum theory, the constant \(s(G)\) is defined to be the smallest positive integer \(t\) such that any sequence over a finite abelian group \(G\) of length \(t\) contains a zero-sum subsequence of length \(\exp(G)\) (the exponent of \(G\)). The famous Erdős-Ginzburg-Ziv Theorem implies \(s(\mathbb{Z}_n)=2n-1\) and the Kemnitz-Reiher Theorem states that \(s(\mathbb{Z}_n^2)=4n-3\). The generalized constant \(s_A(G)\) is defined as the least positive integer \(t\) such that any sequence \(S\) in \(G\) with length \(|S|\geq t\) has an \(A\)-weighted zero-sum subsequence of length \(\text{exp}(G)\), where \(A\) is a nonempty subset of \({1,\ldots, \exp(G)-1}\).NEWLINENEWLINEIn this paper, the authors derive an upper bound of \(s_A(G)\) when \(G\) is an abelian \(p\)-group, \(A\) contains no multiples of \(p\) and any two distinct elements of \(A\) are incongruent modulo \(p\). In addition, they determined the asymptotic behavior of \(s_{\pm 1}(G)\) when \(\exp(G)\) is even.

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