Inder S. Gopal, Don Coppersmith, et al.
IEEE TC
Paul Erdös asked how dense a sequence of integers, none of which is the sum of a consecutive subsequence, can be. In other words, let 〈x1,...,xm〉 be an increasing sequence of integers in [1,n], such that there do not exist i, j, and k, with 0 < i < j < k ≤ m and xi + xi+1 + ⋯ + xj = xk. Erdös asked if m > n/2 + 1 is possible. A simple argument shows that m > 2n/3 + O(log n) is impossible. Freud recently constructed a sequence with m = 19n/36. This note constructs a sequence with m = 13n/24 - O(1) and extends the simple upper bound to show that m > (2/3 - ∈)n + (log n) is impossible for ∈= 1/512.
Inder S. Gopal, Don Coppersmith, et al.
IEEE TC
Don Coppersmith
Linear Algebra and Its Applications
Don Coppersmith, Igor Pak
Probability Theory and Related Fields
Béla Bollobás, Don Coppersmith, et al.
SIAM Journal on Discrete Mathematics