Research notes on every problem, and a library of the papers behind them. Built from the open erdos repository.
Updated
Adenwalla 2022 avoiding monotone arithmetic progressions permutations integers
Sarosh Adenwalla, Avoiding Monotone Arithmetic Progressions in Permutations of Integers. arXiv preprint (2022), arXiv:2211.04451; published in Discrete Math. 347 (2024), no. 11, Paper No. 114183, doi:10.1016/j.disc.2024.114183. The copy read for this card is arXiv version 7 (2024-07-23, 16 pages).
Theorem 1 (p. 3) constructs a permutation of the integers avoiding monotone 5-term arithmetic progressions, improving Geneson's length-6 construction, and the paper notes that it gives alpha_Z(5) = beta_Z(5) = 1; Theorem 2 (p. 5) constructs a doubly infinite permutation of the integers with the same property. The constructions are explicit and block-based: intervals permuted to avoid 3-APs are concatenated after affine maps aS + b, with block sizes and residues chosen so that long monotone progressions cannot straddle blocks. On restricted common differences, Theorem 4 (p. 7) gives, for every 3-permissible n (equivalently every power of 2), a permutation of the positive integers in which every 4-AP has common difference a multiple of n, generalizing LeSaulnier and Vijay's odd-difference case; Theorems 6, 7 and 8 (pp. 9-11) improve density bounds to beta_{Z^+}(4) = 1, alpha_Z(4) = 1 with beta_Z(4) >= 2/3, and beta_Z(3)
= 3/10. Theorem 12 (p. 13) characterizes exactly the permutations of [1,2^k] that avoid 3-APs mod 2^k, and the paper notes that no technique is known for bounding any of these densities strictly below 1. For problem 195, Theorem 1 is the bound k <= 4 that the site credits to [Ad22], and Theorem 2 gives the same bound for doubly infinite arrangements; the paper's Question 1 (p. 15) asks whether the integers or the positive integers can be permuted to avoid monotone 4-term APs. For problem 196, on permutations of the positive integers, Theorem 6 (beta_{Z^+}(4) = 1) is the paper's step toward that question, which the paper leaves open (only length 5 is achieved, for the integers). For problem 197 the length-3 and restricted-difference results place the Erdos-Graham partition question in the same active 2018-2023 line of work while leaving it open; they include Geneson's result, restated as Theorem 5 (p. 8): "For each integer , every permutation of the positive integers contains an arithmetic progression of length 3 with common difference not divisible by ." The paper restates the partition question as its Question 6 (p. 16) and partitions the integers, not the positive integers, into three sets each of which can be permuted to avoid 3-APs (p. 16).
Source: https://arxiv.org/abs/2211.04451. The arXiv record (https://arxiv.org/abs/2211.04451, read 2026-10-02) names the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license.
Results to transcribe.
- Theorem 1 (p. 3): "There exists a permutation of the integers, , that avoids 5-APs." Here a -AP is a monotone -term arithmetic progression; the paper notes that this gives alpha_Z(5) = beta_Z(5) = 1.
- Theorem 2 (p. 5): "There exists a doubly infinite permutation of the integers, , that avoids 5-APs."
- Theorem 4 (p. 7): "For every that is 3-permissible, there exists a permutation of the positive integers such that all 4-APs in the permutation have common difference divisible by ." The 3-permissible are the powers of 2.
- Theorem 6 (p. 9): "There exists a sequence of permutations of the positive integers such that ."
- Theorems 7 and 8 (pp. 9-11): Permutations of the integers giving beta_Z(4) >= 2/3, alpha_Z(4) = 1, and beta_Z(3) >= 3/10.
- Theorem 12 (p. 13): Exact structural characterization of the permutations of [1,2^k] that avoid 3-APs mod 2^k.