Zero-sum problems for abelian p-groups and covers of the integers by residue classes

DOI10.1007/S11856-009-0027-8MaRDI QIDQ839914zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Publication date 3 September 2009

Published in Israel Journal of Mathematics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/math/0305369

Arithmetic progressions (11B25) Other combinatorial number theory (11B75) Arithmetic and combinatorial problems involving abstract finite groups (20D60) Finite abelian groups (20K01)

Abstract: Zero-sum problems for abelian groups and covers of the integers by residue classes, are two different active topics initiated by P. Erdos more than 40 years ago and investigated by many researchers separately since then. In an earlier announcement [Electron. Res. Announc. Amer. Math. Soc. 9(2003), 51-60], the author claimed some surprising connections among these seemingly unrelated fascinating areas. In this paper we establish further connections between zero-sum problems for abelian p-groups and covers of the integers. For example, we extend the famous Erdos-Ginzburg-Ziv theorem in the following way: If {a_s(mod n_s)}_{s=1}^k covers each integer either exactly 2q-1 times or exactly 2q times where q is a prime power, then for any c_1,...,c_k in Z/qZ there exists a subset I of {1,...,k} such that sum_{s in I}1/n_s=q and sum_{s in I}c_s=0. Our main theorem in this paper unifies many results in the two realms and also implies an extension of the Alon-Friedland-Kalai result on regular subgraphs.

Review text

Let \(C_n\) denote the cyclic group of \(n\) elements. Let \(G=C_{n_1}\oplus \cdots \oplus C_{n_r}\) be an additive finite abelian group with \(1<n_1|\cdots |n_r\). Denote by \(d^*(G)\) the sum \(\sum_{i=1}^r(n_i-1)\). A sequence \(S=a_1\cdot \ldots \cdot a_k\) of elements in \(G\) is called a \textsl{zero-sum sequence} if \(\sum_{i=1}^ka_i=0\) (the identity of \(G\)). Let \(a,n\) be integers with \(n>0\). Denote by \(a(n)\) the set \(a+n\mathbb{Z}=\{a+nx: x\in \mathbb{Z}\}\). A finite system \(\{a_i(n_i)\}_{i=1}^s\) is called a \(m\) cover of \(\mathbb{Z}\) if every integer belongs to at least \(m\) of \(a_1(n_1), \ldots, a_s(n_s)\). The author obtained several new results on zero-sum involving cover of \(\mathbb{Z}\), and the most interesting result among them is the following: Let \(p\) be a prime, and let \(G\) be a finite abelian \(p\)-group. Let \(\{a_i(n_i)\}_{i=1}^s\) be a \(d^*(G)+p^h\) cover of \(\mathbb{Z}\) with \(h\geq 0\), let \(c_1, \ldots, c_s\in G\) and let \(m_1, \cdots, m_s \in \mathbb{Z}\). Then \[ \left|\left\{I\subset [1,s]: \sum_{i\in I}c_i=c \text{ and } \sum_{i\in I} \frac{m_i}{n_i}\in \alpha +p^h\mathbb{Z}\right\}\right|\neq 1 \] for any \(c\in G\) and rational number \(\alpha\).

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