On the minimum size of subset and subsequence sums in integers

Abstract: Let

m a t h c a l A

be a sequence of

r k

terms which is made up of

k

distinct integers each appearing exactly

r

times in

m a t h c a l A

. The sum of all terms of a subsequence of

m a t h c a l A

is called a subsequence sum of

m a t h c a l A

. For a nonnegative integer

a l p h a l e q r k

, let

S i g m a_{a l p h a} (m a t h c a l A)

be the set of all subsequence sums of

m a t h c a l A

that correspond to the subsequences of length

a l p h a

or more. When

r = 1

, we call the subsequence sums as subset sums and we write

S i g m a_{a l p h a} (A)

for

S i g m a_{a l p h a} (m a t h c a l A)

. In this article, using some simple combinatorial arguments, we establish optimal lower bounds for the size of

S i g m a_{a l p h a} (A)

and

S i g m a_{a l p h a} (m a t h c a l A)

. As special cases, we also obtain some already known results in this study.

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