Thresholds for zero-sums with small cross numbers in abelian groups

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Bushaw, Neal, Hurlbert, Glenn
Format: Preprint
Published: 2023
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author Bushaw, Neal
Hurlbert, Glenn
author_facet Bushaw, Neal
Hurlbert, Glenn
contents For an additive group $Γ$ the sequence $S = (g_1, \ldots, g_t)$ of elements of $Γ$ is a zero-sum sequence if $g_1 + \cdots + g_t = 0_Γ$. The cross number of $S$ is defined to be the sum $\sum_{i=1}^k 1/|g_i|$, where $|g_i|$ denotes the order of $g_i$ in $Γ$. Call $S$ good if it contains a zero-sum subsequence with cross number at most 1. In 1993, Geroldinger proved that if $Γ$ is abelian then every length $|Γ|$ sequence of its elements is good, generalizing a 1989 result of Lemke and Kleitman that had proved an earlier conjecture of Erdős and Lemke. In 1989 Chung re-proved the Lemke and Kleitman result by applying a theorem of graph pebbling, and in 2005, Elledge and Hurlbert used graph pebbling to re-prove and generalize Geroldinger's result. Here we use probabilistic theorems from graph pebbling to derive a threshold version of Geroldinger's theorem for abelian groups of a certain form. Specifically, we prove that if $p_1, \ldots, p_d$ are (not necessarily distinct) primes and $Γ_k$ has the form $\prod_{i=1}^d {\mathbb Z}_{p_i^k}$ then there is a function $τ=τ(k)$ (which we specify in Theorem 4) with the following property: if $t-τ\rightarrow\infty$ as $k\rightarrow\infty$ then the probability that $S$ is good in $Γ_k$ tends to 1.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2309_03455
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Thresholds for zero-sums with small cross numbers in abelian groups
Bushaw, Neal
Hurlbert, Glenn
Combinatorics
11P70 (Primary) 20K01, 60C05 (Secondary)
For an additive group $Γ$ the sequence $S = (g_1, \ldots, g_t)$ of elements of $Γ$ is a zero-sum sequence if $g_1 + \cdots + g_t = 0_Γ$. The cross number of $S$ is defined to be the sum $\sum_{i=1}^k 1/|g_i|$, where $|g_i|$ denotes the order of $g_i$ in $Γ$. Call $S$ good if it contains a zero-sum subsequence with cross number at most 1. In 1993, Geroldinger proved that if $Γ$ is abelian then every length $|Γ|$ sequence of its elements is good, generalizing a 1989 result of Lemke and Kleitman that had proved an earlier conjecture of Erdős and Lemke. In 1989 Chung re-proved the Lemke and Kleitman result by applying a theorem of graph pebbling, and in 2005, Elledge and Hurlbert used graph pebbling to re-prove and generalize Geroldinger's result. Here we use probabilistic theorems from graph pebbling to derive a threshold version of Geroldinger's theorem for abelian groups of a certain form. Specifically, we prove that if $p_1, \ldots, p_d$ are (not necessarily distinct) primes and $Γ_k$ has the form $\prod_{i=1}^d {\mathbb Z}_{p_i^k}$ then there is a function $τ=τ(k)$ (which we specify in Theorem 4) with the following property: if $t-τ\rightarrow\infty$ as $k\rightarrow\infty$ then the probability that $S$ is good in $Γ_k$ tends to 1.
title Thresholds for zero-sums with small cross numbers in abelian groups
topic Combinatorics
11P70 (Primary) 20K01, 60C05 (Secondary)
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2309.03455