The Erdős distinct subset sums problem in a modular setting
Volume 217 / 2025
Acta Arithmetica 217 (2025), 295-307
MSC: Primary 11B13; Secondary 11B50, 11B75
DOI: 10.4064/aa231107-13-9
Published online: 6 February 2025
Abstract
We prove the following variant of the Erdős distinct subset sums problem. Given $t \ge 0$ and sufficiently large $n$, every $n$-element set $A$ whose subset sums are distinct modulo $N=2^n+t$ satisfies $$\max A \ge \biggl(\frac{1}{3}-o(1)\bigg)N. $$ Furthermore, we provide examples showing that the constant $1/3$ is best possible. For small values of $t$, we characterise the structure of all sumset-distinct sets modulo $N=2^n+t$ of cardinality $n$.
