Every function is the representation function of an additive basis for the integers

Abstract: Let A be a set of integers. For every integer n, let r_{A,h}(n) denote the number of representations of n in the form n = a_1 + a_2 + ... + a_h, where a_1, a_2,...,a_h are in A and a_1 leq a_2 leq ... leq a_h. The function r_{A,h}: Z o N_0 cup infty is the representation function of order h for A. The set A is called an asymptotic basis of order h if r_{A,h}^{-1}(0) is finite, that is, if every integer with at most a finite number of exceptions can be represented as the sum of exactly h not necessarily distinct elements of A. It is proved that every function is a representation function, that is, if f: Z o N_0 cup infty is any function such that f^{-1}(0) is finite, then there exists a set A of integers such that f(n) = r_{A,h}(n) for all n in Z. Moreover, the set A can be arbitrarily sparse in the sense that, if phi(x) o infty, then there exists a set A with f(n) = r_{A,h}(n) such that card{a in A : |a| leq x} < phi(x) for all sufficiently large x.

Review text

Let \(\mathbb{Z}\) be the set of the integers, \(\mathbb{N}\) the set of the natural numbers and \(\mathbb{N}_0= \mathbb{N}\cup\{0\}\). For \(A\subseteq\mathbb{Z}\) and \(2\leq h\in\mathbb{N}\) the sumset \(hA\) is defined as \[ hA:= \Biggl\{\sum^h_{i=1} a_i\mid a_i\in A\text{ for }i= 1,\dots, h\Biggr\}. \] A set \(A\) is called a basis of order \(h\) for \(\mathbb{Z}\) if \(hA = \mathbb{Z}\) and \(A\) is an asymptotic basis of order \(h\) for \(\mathbb{Z}\) if \(hA= \mathbb{Z}\setminus M\) (\(M\subset\mathbb{Z}\) a finite set). By \(r_{A,h}(n)\) is denoted the number of representations of \(n\) in the form \(n= \sum^h_{i=1} a_i\), where \(a_i\in A\) \((i= 1,\dots, h)\) and \(a_1\leq a_2\leq\cdots\leq a_h\). The function \(r_{A,h}\) is called the representation function of order \(h\) of the set \(A\). For \(A\subseteq\mathbb{Z}\) is \(A(-x,x):= \text{card}(\{a\in A\mid|a|\leq x\})\). The main result of this paper is the following theorem: Let \(f: \mathbb{Z}\to\mathbb{N}_0\cup\{\infty\}\) be a function such that the set \(f^{-1}(0)\) is finite. Let \(\varphi: \mathbb{N}_0\to\mathbb{R}\) be a nonnegative function such that \(\lim_{x\to\infty} \varphi(x)=\infty\). For every \(h\geq 2\) there exist infinitely many asymptotic bases \(A\) of order \(h\) for \(\mathbb{Z}\) such that \[ r_{A,h}(n)= f(n)\text{ for all }n\in\mathbb{Z},\text{ and }A(-x,x)\leq\varphi(x)\text{ for all }x\geq 0. \] The proof uses a constructive method. It is remarked that an analogous theorem can be obtained for sumsets with pairwise distinct elements from the set \(A\) by an analogous method. These results are in connection with a conjecture of \textit{P. Erdős} and \textit{P. Turán} [J. Lond. Math. Soc. 16, 212--215 (1941; Zbl 0061.07301)]. They conjectured that if \(A\subset\mathbb{N}_0\) is an asymptotic basis of order \(h\) for \(\mathbb{N}\), then the representation function \(r_{A,h}\) is unbounded, i.e. \(\lim_{n\to\infty}\,\sup r_{A,h}(n)= \infty\). This is an unsolved problem. Finally, the author discusses some open problems.

Recommendations

Cited in

(21)

This page was built for publication: Every function is the representation function of an additive basis for the integers

Report a bug (only for logged in users!)Click here to report a bug for this page (MaRDI item Q1780141)