subsequence sum


Davenport's constant ★★★

Author(s):

For a finite (additive) abelian group $ G $, the Davenport constant of $ G $, denoted $ s(G) $, is the smallest integer $ t $ so that every sequence of elements of $ G $ with length $ \ge t $ has a nontrivial subsequence which sums to zero.

Conjecture   $ s( {\mathbb Z}_n^d) = d(n-1) + 1 $

Keywords: Davenport constant; subsequence sum; zero sum

Gao's theorem for nonabelian groups ★★

Author(s): DeVos

For every finite multiplicative group $ G $, let $ s(G) $ ($ s'(G) $) denote the smallest integer $ m $ so that every sequence of $ m $ elements of $ G $ has a subsequence of length $ >0 $ (length $ |G| $) which has product equal to 1 in some order.

Conjecture   $ s'(G) = s(G) + |G| - 1 $ for every finite group $ G $.

Keywords: subsequence sum; zero sum

Few subsequence sums in Z_n x Z_n ★★

Author(s): Bollobas; Leader

Conjecture   For every $ 0 \le t \le n-1 $, the sequence in $ {\mathbb Z}_n^2 $ consisting of $ n-1 $ copes of $ (1,0) $ and $ t $ copies of $ (0,1) $ has the fewest number of distinct subsequence sums over all zero-free sequences from $ {\mathbb Z}_n^2 $ of length $ n-1+t $.

Keywords: subsequence sum; zero sum

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