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Erdős Problem 328

References:

    erdosproblems.com/328

    [Er80] Erdős, Paul, A survey of problems in combinatorial number theory. Ann. Discrete Math. (1980), 89-115.

    [ErGr80] Erdős, P. and Graham, R., Old and new problems and results in combinatorial number theory. Monographies de L'Enseignement Mathématique (1980).

    [Er80e] Erdős, P., Some applications of Ramsey's theorem to additive number theory. European J. Combin. (1980), 43-46.

    [NeRo85] J. Nešetřil and V. Rödl, Two proofs in combinatorial number theory. Proc. Amer. Math. Soc. (1985), 185-188.

open AdditiveCombinatorics namespace Erdos328

Suppose $A\subseteq\mathbb{N}$ and $C>0$ is such that $1_A\ast 1_A(n)\leq C$ for all $n\in\mathbb{N}$. Can $A$ be partitioned into $t$ many subsets $A_1,\ldots,A_t$ (where $t=t(C)$ depends only on $C$) such that $1_{A_i}\ast 1_{A_i}(n)<C$ for all $1\leq i\leq t$ and $n\in \mathbb{N}$?

The answer is no. Asked by Erdős and Newman. Nešetřil and Rödl [NeRo85] have shown the answer is no for all $C$ (even if $t$ is also allowed to depend on $A$).

Erdős [Er80e] had previously shown the answer is no for $C=3,4$ and infinitely many other values of $C$.

See also [774].

@[category research solved, AMS 11] theorem declaration uses 'sorry'erdos_328 : answer(False) C : , 0 < C t : , A : Set , ( n, sumRep A n C) P : Fin t Set , ( i, P i) = A Set.univ.PairwiseDisjoint P i, n, sumRep (P i) n < C := False (C : ), 0 < C t, (A : Set ), (∀ (n : ), sumRep A n C) P, i, P i = A Set.univ.PairwiseDisjoint P (i : Fin t) (n : ), sumRep (P i) n < C All goals completed! 🐙 end Erdos328