Monatshefte füx

Mh . Math . 102, 183-197 (1986)

Mat~tik
L by Springer-Verlag 1986

Problems and Results on Additive Properties of General

Sequences, V

By
P. Erdős, A . Sárközy and V . T . Sós, Budapest
(Received 17 January 1986 .)

Dedicated to our friend Professor E . Hlawka on the occasion of his

seventieth birthday

Abstract. A very special case of one of the theorems of the authors states as
follows : Let 1 < a, < a, < . . . be an infinite sequence of integers for which all the
sums a, + a,, I < i -<j, are distinct . Then there are infinitely many integers k for which
2k can be represented in the form a ; + a, but 2k + 1 cannot be represented in this
form . Several unsolved problems are stated .

1 . Let A = { a, , a,, . . . t (a, < az < . . .) be an infinite sequence of

positive integers . We denote the complement of A by 4 :
A={0,1,2, . . .f-A .
Put
A (n) _ Y 1, (n) _ Y, 1 ,
-A axA

and for n = 0, 1, 2, . . . let R, (n), R2 (n), R, (n) denote the number of

solutions of
a, + a,. = n, a, e A, a,, e A (1)

a,- + a,, = n, .x < y, a, E A, a,, e A (2)

and
as + a,, = it, x - y, a, c A, a,, e A, (3)

respectively .
In the first four parts of this series (see [3], [4], [5] and [6]) we studied
the regularity properties of the functions R, (n), R z (n) and R3 (n) . In
1 84 P .ERDös, A .SARKÖzy and V . T .S6s

particular, in Part IV, we studied the monotonicity properties of these

functions . We proved that the function R, (n) is monotone increasing
from a certain point on, i . e ., there exists an integer n (, with
R, (n + 1) > R, (n) for n > n o
if and only if the sequence A contains all the integers from a certain
point on, i .e ., there exists an integer n, with
Anfn, e,+1A n, +2, . . .}=fn,,n,+l,n,+2 . . . . ] .

such that
A(n) < n-cn'1/3

(so that A (n) > c n' 3 ) and R, (n) is monotone increasing from a certain
point on .Finaly,weshodta if A (n) = o n then the
(log n) ,
fwrctions R, (n) and R3 (n) cannot be monotone increasing . (See [I], [2]
and [7] for other related problems and results .)
The purpose of this paper is to prove a result of independent
interest on the connection between R 3 (2 k) and R 3 (2 k + 1) (see
Theorem 1 below) which will enable us to improve on our earlier
estimates concerning the monotonicity of R3 (n) (see Corollary 1
below) .
Theorem 1 .1j'Á = f a ] , az , . . .} (a, < a, < . . .) is an infinite sequence
oj'positive integers such that

A (n) = n A (n)
lim lim - + U (4)

then we have NN

lim sup (R 3 (2 k) - R3 (2 k + 1)) _ + oo . (5)

(So that, roughly speaking, a, + a, assumes more even values

than odd ones .) Clearly, this theorem implies that
Corollary 1 . 1 ff A = f a, , az , . . .} (a, <a2 < . . .) is an infinite
sequence o/'positive integers such that (4) holds, then the,fúnction R3 (n)

Corollary 1 has been obtained independently by R . BALASUBR .AMANIAN . His

 Problems and Results on Additive Properties of General Sequences, V 1 85

cannot he monotone increasing from a certain point on, i.e ., there does
not exist an integer n z with
R, (it + 1) >- R3 (n) for n - n, .

We recall that in [6] we proved this with the much stronger

assumption A (n) ="o rt / in place of (4) . This result seems to

(logn
suggest that, contrary to our earlier conjecture, also R 3 (n) can be
monotone increasing only in the trivial way but unfortunately we have
not been able to prove this .
A sequence A =,a,,a,, . . .] (a, < a, < . . .) of positive integers is
said to be a Sidon sequence if R 3 (n) S 1 for all n, i .e ., if

a,+ =a„+a,,, x<y,u-v

implies that x = u, y = v . (We remark that very little is known on the

properties of Sidon sequences ; see eg . [7] .) Theorem l implies trivially
that

Corollary 2 . If A is an infinite Sidon sequence, then there exist

infinitely many integers k such that R3 (2 k) = t and R3 (2 k + 1) = 0,
i.e., 2 k can be represented in the form

a,+at =2k
but
a x +a,,=2k+1
is not solvable .
(In fact, it can be shown by analyzing the proof of Theorem 1 that
there exist infinitely many positive integers N such that the assertion of
Corollary 2 holds for > A (N) integers k with k - N .)
Theorem I is near the best possible as the following results shows :

Theorem 2 . There exists a sequence A = {al, a2 , . . .,k (a, < a, < . . .)

ofpositive integers such that for some positive real numbers c, n 3 we have

A (n) > c log n (for n > n 3 ) (6)

paper contains several other related results of independent interest . His paper will
appear in Acta Arithmetica .
186 P. ERDős, A . SáRKözY and V . T . Sós

crud
w
lira sup L (R3 (2 k) - R3 (2k + 1)) < + . (7)
k-1

2. The proof of Theorem 1 will be based on the following idea : If A

is a finite sequence of positive integers, and we denote the number of
even elements and odd elements of it by A O and A,, respectively, then
the sum in (5) can be estimated in the following way :

Y, (R 3 (2 k) - R3 (2 k + 1)) _ I R 3 (2 k) - I R3 (2 k + 1) _
k--1 k=1 k=1

1- 1=1 Y 1+z Y 1-
acA,a'eA a,A,a',A aeA,a'c .4 a cA
a-<a' a<a' a+n'=0 ~d2)
a+a'_0(mod2) a+a -
- 1(~d2)

,eA,a'eA
a+a -
-1 (mod 2)

= ? (A ő + A ;) + 51 (Ao + A,) - 2' (A D A, + A, A O) -

= (A O - A,) 2 + (A O + A,) > z (A o + A,)

which tends to infinity if the cardinality (= A (, + A,) of the sequence A

tends to infinity . However, of course, the situation is much more
complicated for infinite sequences .
For-1<+l,put
%(r) _ Y r"
aeA
so that
f,2
(r) _(Y r") ( r"') _ ~: r" - "' (= R, (n) r")
aeA a'eA aeÁ .a' .A
and hence
R3 (n) r" _ Y r" " --
, =1 1eA,a'eA
a-"
- 1 Y, r '°
2 r" " + 2 = z (% 2 (r) +Í(r 2)) .
neA .a'eA ne 4

(Note that here and in what follows all the infinite power series are
absolutely convergent trivially for - I < r < + 1 .)
For-I<+1,put
 Problems and Results on Additive Properties of General Sequences, V 187

g (r) _ R 3 (n) r" = I (f z (r) + 1'(r 2)) (8)

n=1
and
+x

h(r) _ Y, (R3 (2k) - R 3 (2k + 1))r -k+1

k,=1

Then for 0 < r < 1 we have

R3 (2k+1)r zk+1 =
h(r)=r (R 3 (2k)r 2k -
A--1 F-=1

r 2 R3 (n) (r" + (- r)~ - y, 2 R3 (n) (r" - (- r) ") _

n=1 n=1

,'r +x
( 9)
_ -,(~ -r) I R 3 (n)r"+-(1+r) I R1 (n) (- ) n =
n I

=- z( 1 --)g(r)+z(1+r)g(-

To prove (5), it is enough to show that

lim sup h (r) _ + oo . (10)

r-.1 -0

In fact, if we start from the indirect assumption that (5) does not hold,
then there exists a positive real number B such that
w
Y, (R 3 (2 k) - R 3 (2k + 1» <- R for N=1,2. . .
k=1

and hence for all 0 < r < 1,

1 + . +-r
h(r) _ r` (R3 (2k) - R 3 (2k + 1))r' k-1 =
1 -r i-0 k-1

+a : [0 - 11/2]
_ y- y (R3 (2 k) - R 3 (2 k + 1)) r"
r~=0 k=1

-YBr " =BY,r "=

—0 —0 1-r
so that
h(r)~B
which contradicts (10) .
188 P . ERDOs, A . SÁRKÖzy end V . T . Sós

In view of (8) and (9), clearly we have

4h(r)=-2(1-r)g(r)+2(1 +r)g(-r)=
=-(1-r)(f2(r)+f(r`))+(I+r)(f'(-r)+Í(r'))= (11)
=-(1 -r) .f2(I.)+2rf(r) +(1+r) .f'(-r)>
- (1 - r) . f' (r) + 2 r, 1'(r -) .

For k = l, 2, . . ., put rk = exp (- 1/2), so that r, < r 2 < . . . < I,

lim r k. = 1,

rk , = rk (for k = 2, 3, . . .) (12)
and
L 1
2k < 1 - rk = 1 - ex p (- 1/2 k) < for k = 1,1—, (13)
Zk

since
z
2<x 1-2)-x- 2 <I-e - '<x for 0<x<l .

For k = I . 2, . . . we write

H(k) = h(r k ) and F(k)=fr k) .

Furthemo,wp
y = lim sup (1 - r k) F(k) and 8 = lim inf (1 - rk) F(k) .
A-+,, k-.+w

3 . In order to derive (l0) from (11), we have to distinguish four

cases .
Case 1 . Assume first that

< l (14)
and
y>0 . (15)
6 + ,.
Put _ -2' so that
0<o<1 (I6)
 Problems and Results on Additive Properties of General Sequences, V 189

and
{) =h= y if ~ =,,, (17)

,) <n< y if 5<y . (18)

If (17) holds, then
lim (I - rk ) F(k) _

hence in view of (14), for all F > 0 and k > k o (r) we have
(1+e)'-rk_F1>o (19)
and
1
(I - rk ) F(k)<l+ e) '' (20)

(19) and (20) imply that

(I-rjFk)<+,1'2p(Ie-rk I )F(k-1 . (21)

If (18) holds, then by the definition of ~ and y , there exists an

infinite sequence k, < k, < . . . of positive integers such that for
i = 1,2, . . .,
(1 - r k21 1 ) F(kz, ,) > o > ( I - r kzi) F(k, ;) .

Then for all i, there exists an integer k with k z ;_. t > k > k ; and
(1 - rk.,)F(k- 1) 3 F,> (1 - rk) F(k) (22)

so that (22) holds for infinitely many positive integers k .

Either (21) holds for k > k e (e) or (22) holds for infinitely many k,
there exist infinitely many positive integers k with
(1 - rk)F(k)<1+ e) (I - r k _,)F(k - 1) .

Hence, in view of (l2), (1 - rk)F(k)<1+ e) (1 - rk)F( - 1) and

F(k)<1+ .)(I + rk ) F(k - 1) . (23)

In view of (I1), (12), (20), (22) and (23), for sufficiently large k we
have
4 h (rk) = 4 H (k) >- - (1 - rk)f - (rA) + 2 rk f (rk) _

- - ( 1- rA).f (rk) + 2rAf(rk_,)_ - (1 - rA)F~(k+2 .F(k-1)>

> - (l - rj P (k) + 2 rk F(k) > (24)

(1 + F) (1 + r k)
1 90 P. ERDŐS, A . sáRKözY and V . T . Sós

> - (1 - r k )F (k) +1F(k) -F(k) 1 -(l - r k ) F(k) I >

1+2e 1+2e

1 \
> F(k) - (1 + e) t!z o l .
1 + 2,

If e is sufficiently small in terms of , then in view of (16) we have

1
1 0 + e) I"
,
o>
(25)
1+2e 2

It follows from (24) and (25) that for infinitely many positive integers k
we have
-~
4h(rk ) > 1 -F(k)
2

which tends to + as k , + oo since clearly, for infinite sequences

A we have
lim ,f(r) _ + rc ,
-1 -0

and this completes the proof of (10) in Case 1 .

Case 2 . Assume now that

á = y = fim (1 - r k ) F(k)=0 . (26)

k-+x

We are going to show that there exist infinitely many positive integers
k with
F(k)<4 F(k - 1) . (27)

In fact, let us start from the indirect assumption that there exists a
positive integer K such that fork > K we have F(k) _> 4 F(k - 1) (for
k > K) .
This implies by straight induction that for j = 0, 1, 2, . . . we have
F(K+j)-> 4'F(K) • ( 28)

On the other hand, for all 0 < r < l,

+x
1
f(r) _ r" < r,, _
—A -0 ' 1 -- r

so that in view of (12),

 Problems and Results on Additive Properties of General Sequences, V 1 91

1
F(K + .Í) = .Í'(rK- ) = i(rK I < - - !
2
1 - rr'
1-
1
(29)
1 _ 1- r k I 1 2!
1 - rK 1 - r "- l - rK r=o " 1 - r•K r-o I - rK

It follows from (28) and (29) that

->4'F(K)= .1(r.)
l - rK

but if j is sufficiently large in terms of r K , then this inequality cannot

hold (note that 0 < r K < I and that f(r) > 0 for all 0 < r < 1), and this
contradiction proves the existence of infinitely many positive integers
k satisfying (27) .
Then in view of (12) and (26), we obtain from (11) that if k satisfies
(27) and is sufficiently large,
4 h (rk ) = 4 H (k) >- - (I - rk )fz (r k) + 2 rk, 1'(r F)_
_ - (I - rk),/ 2 (rk) + 2 r •k .f (rk-i) _
_ - (1 - rk ) F 2 (k) + 2 r • k F(k - 1) _
=-(1 -r•k )F(k-41 +2r k F(k-1)=
=F(k - 1) (- 4 (1 - rk) F(k) + 2 rk) >
>F(k- 1)(- ; + 1) >'-F(k - 1)

which tends to + as k-~ + cc (since A is infinite) and this

completes the proof of (10) in Case 2 .

4. In order to study the cases with > = I, we introduce the

following notation : we put
1 +r
r" - r =
P (r) _ - f(r) _ Y ` r. " (30)
1 -r "=o ,-A

and
P(k) = P(rk) (k= 1,2, . . .)
so that
lim sup (1 - r,) p (rk) = lim sup (1 - (1 - rk) f(rk )) _
k -n k-.+u,
(31)
=I- lim inf(1-rk)F(k=1-b0 for h=1
k--+ r
1 92 P . ERIH)s, A . SÁRK(ZY and V . T . Sós

and in view of (4), for arbitrary large positive number L and for
r ~ 1 - 0 we have
L r
PO. ) _ ") -
1 - r „cE,A
+r
_ (I -r) Y- r'
Y r. " _ - r) A (n) r" >
i=O , CA —0

> (1 - r)(O(1) + Y- L (log n)r ") _

=o(I)+ ~ L(logn)(r " -r " +i)=

= o (1) + L (log n - log (n - 1)) r" _

1
= o(1)+L~ (log (l+ n Ilr">
_~ - 11\1
+x
r" 1
>o(1)+cL~ =o(1)+cLlog

(where c is a positive absolute constant) . This holds for all L > 0

whence
1 i
lim p (r) log = + -li . (32)
-.,_o 1 -r

It follows from (13) and (32) that

P(k) ~ 1 ~-
lim ~ lim p (rk ) log 2 log = + cc . (33)
k-+r, k -,i -n I - rk

Finaly,vewof(12), it follows from (11) and (30) that

4 H (k) = 4 h (rk ) >- - (I (rk) + 2 rk .ArF ) _
1 z 1
=-(1-rk) 1-r .-P(rk) +2r k I - P(r~) _
k
1 2 r
+2P(k)-(1-rk)P2(k)+ _ k -2rk P(k-1) =
1- rk
(34)
 Problems and Results on Additive Properties of General Sequences . V 193

1
+2P(k)-(I -rk)P'(k)-2r k P(k- 1) >
1 + rk

>-1 +2P(k)-(1-r'k)P'-(k)-2P(k-1) .

Case 3 . Assume that

and
lim sup P (k) (I - rk)'1,12 > 0 . (36)
I,-- ,
It follows from (13) and (36) that
0 < lim sup P (k) (1 - r k )'' 2 < lim sup P (k) 2 <
k- +x k- +x
(37)
< lim supP(k)e -k ' 4 .
k-+,
We are going to show that there exist infinitely many integers k with
P (k) > e'," P (k - 1) . ( 38)

In fact, let us start from the indirect assumption that there exists a
positive integer K such that for k _> K we have
P(k) -e''P(k-1) (fork >K) .

This implies by straight induction that for j = 0, l, 2, . . . we have

P(K+j)<e""P(K),
i .e . .
P(k)-<e-k'"ek"P(K) for k>K
hence
lim sup P (k) c AA - lim supe - h' s e k" P (K) e - k,4 =

lim supe -1" 8 P(K)e -k'8 =0

k - + +z

which cannot hold by (37) and this contradiction proves the existence
of infinitely many integers k satisfying (38) .
Then in view of (3l) and (33), we obtain from (34) that if k satisfies
(38) and is sufficiently large,

4H(k) > -I +2P(k)-(1 -rk)P'(k)-2P(k-1)>

> - I +2P(k)-(I -rk)P'(k)-2e-''8P(k)=
194 P .ERUÜS. A. SÁRKÖZY and V . T . Sós

= P(k)(- I +2-(1-r k)P(k)-2e -1 i 8 ~

P (k)
1 \
>P(k) - k -4-2-o (1)-2e-''sl=

= P(k) (2 (1 - e - '- s) - o (l)) > (1 - e - ''s) P (k)

which, by (33) and 1 - e - ' b > 0, tends to + xj as k -> + x and this

completes the proof of (10) in Case 3 .
Case 4 . AsumeFinalyth b = 1 and
lim P (k) (1 - r k )''2 = 0 . (39)

Then in view of (33), (34) and (39), for sufficiently large N we have
1 :v I v
4 - Y H (A-) >- Y (- 1 + 2 P (k) - (1 - rx) P'` (k) - 2 P (k - 1)) >
N k-2 N k
2 v 1 y,
• -1+-Y (P(k)-P(k-1)) - -Y (1-rk)P'-(k)>
1 k-2 N k=2

• -1+2P(N)N- ' -2P(1)N N- ' (P(k)(1-rk)u2)2>

k-2

• -1+2P(N)N- ' -1-N - '(O(1)+ ~ 1) >

k-2
• - l+ 2P(N)N-' - 1- 2> P(N)N - '
which, by (33), tends to + as N- + x, and this proves (10) also in
Case 4 which completes the proof of Theorem l .

5 . Proof of Theorem 2 . Let B = { 17, 64, . . ., 4'-k + 1,4 =k ', . . . }

and define the sequence A by
A =B-10; =11,2,á, . . .,n, . . .}-B .

This sequence A satisfies (6) trivially . We are going to show that it

satisfies also (7) .
Let us write
(I if XEB
11 (X) _
O Sf X (t B
 Problems and Results on Additive Properties of General Sequences, V 195

and
B,(ti) _ 1 and B, (ti) _ 1
bán,beR hánbER
b-o(lmod ?) b= 1 ( ;-d 2)
so that
BO (ti)+B,(n)= 1=B(n),
bER
b<It

and by the construction of the sequence B,

I B,~ (n) - B, (n) 15 1 for all n . (40)

Clearly we have

R,(n)= (1-, j (i»(1-r(n-i))=

i<ni2

1- (ti/2) + rl(i)r,(ti -i)

_ 1-B(n-1)+ Y r,(i)q (ti-i) .

i<n ;2 i < ní2

Hence
R3(2k)-R,(2k+1)=

_(Y, 1- Y 1)+(B(2k)-B(2k-1))+
iák iák+li2

+ rl(i)«2k-i)- r1(i)tl(2k+1 - i)=

iák-1 iák

=rl(2k)+ ~ ri(i) rj (2k-i)-~q(i)rj(2k+1-i)

iák-1 i<k

so that
,v
Y, (R 3 (2 k) - R 3 (2 k + 1)) _ (41)
k-- I
N K
_ ~7,(2k)+~: ~ i i (i)ri(2k - i) -i)=
- Y _r7(i)q(2k+1
k=1 k-I iák-I k=1 íók

=Bo(2N)+`,-1'2

14 MonatsheRc lür Maffi--k, Bd . 102~3

196 P . ERDős, A. SÁRKözY and V. T. Sós

where
, n
r, _ ( i) (2 k -i) and , _ ti (i) 0 (2 k + 1 - i) .
k=1 i<-k- 1 k-1 i-k

Here Z, is the number of solutions of

b + b'< 2 N + l, b + b' 0 (mod 2), b < b', b e B, b' c B, (42)

while , is the number of solutions of

- I (mod 2), b < b', b e B, b' e B .
b + h'< 2 N + l , b + b'- (43)

Let us define j by
bj <2N+I-b,,,,

and let us classify the pairs satisfying (42) according to that whether
b' < b, or b' = b1. If b' < b;, then the pair b, b' in (42) can be chosen in
l Bo (b ; - 1)1
ways from the B,) (b, - 1) integers b with b = 0 (mod 2),
2
~B, (b, - 1)1
b -< b - 1 . h c B, or it can be chosen in ~ ways from the
B, (bj - l) integers b with h - 1 (mod 2), b -< bj - 1, b e B. Furthe-
more, if b' = bf , then b in (42) can be any of the integers h with
b = b, (mod 2), b - 2 N + I - b, b c- B, apart from the case 2 b;
2 N + 1 when b = b, must not occur . Thus writing

I if 2b ;<2N+1
0 if 2b ; > 2N+ 1 ,
we have
Bo (b, - 1)) B,(b,2 - 1)) +
, - + + ~ 1 - o h. . (44)
2 b =_ b, (mod 2)
b52N+1-b,,beB

Similarly, if b'< b) in (43), then b, b' in (43) can be any of the

Bo (bj - 1) B, (b, - 1) pairs b, b' with b b' (mod 2), b < h, - 1,
b' - b ; - 1, b e B, b' c- B . If b' = bj in (43), then b can be any integer
with b b) (mod 2), b - 2 N + I - bf , b e B so that

Z2 = Bo (bj - 1) B, (b) - 1) - 1 (45)

b -x b; (mod 2)
b62N+1- b ;.b .B

It follows from (41), (44) and (45) that

 Problems and Results on Additive Properties of General Sequences, V 197

(R 3 (2 k) - R 3 (2 k + l)) _
k=1

Bo (b;-1) (B, (b i - 1» -
B0 (2N)+
B + ~ B u(h - 1)B,(b; 1) +
« 2

+( y 1- y 1)-0, -<
b_b,(mnd2) brb,(mod2)
b52N+I-b„b,B b62 .N+1-b„bEB

5 i (Bo (b; - 1) - B, (bj - 1)) 2 + Bo (2 N) - Bo (bi -1) +

+iIBo(b; - 1) - B,(bi - 1)I

hence, in view of (40),
N

Y(R3 (2k)-R3 (2k+1))<3+1+i=2

k=1

which completes the proof of Theorem 2 .

References

[1] ERDŐS, P. : Problems and results in additive number theory . Colloque sur la
Théorie des Nombres (CBRM) (Bruxelles, 1956), 127-137 .
[2] ERDŐS, P ., and RSNY], A . : Additive properties of random sequences of
positive integers . Acta Arith . 6, 83-110 (1960) .
[3] ERDŐS, P., SARKüZY, A . : Problems and results on additive properties of
general sequences, 1. Pacific J . Math . 118, 347-357 (1985) .
[4] ERDŐS, P., SARKOZY, A . : Problems and results on additive properties of
general sequences, IL Acta Math . Acad . Set . Hung . To appear .
[5] EROÖS, P ., SARKözY, A ., Sós, V .T. : Problems and results on additive
properties of general sequences, III . Studia Set . Math . Hung. To appear .
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Springer. 1983 .

P . ERDős,A . SARKözY and V . T . Sós

Mathematical Institute
Hungarian Academy of Sciences
Reáltanoda u . 13--15
Budapest, Hungary