Wiki
Wiki

Research notes on every problem, and a library of the papers behind them. Built from the open erdos repository.

Updated


Statement

Notation (p. 5-01). N0\mathbb N_0 is the set of non-negative integers; for A⊆N0A\subseteq\mathbb N_0, D∞(A)\mathcal D_\infty(A) is the set of d∈N0d\in\mathbb N_0 with A∩(A−d)A\cap(A-d) infinite. Let D\mathfrak D be the collection of all sets D∞(A)\mathcal D_\infty(A) with AA of positive upper density (p. 5-04; the print writes D).

Theorem 5 (p. 5-04), with a pointer to Stewart and Tijdeman's paper on infinite-difference sets. D\mathfrak D is a filter of the set of all subsets of N0\mathbb N_0.

Remarks (p. 5-04). D\mathfrak D is not an ultrafilter: there are disjoint sets with arbitrarily large gaps whose union is N0\mathbb N_0, and by Theorem 2 an infinite-difference set of a set of positive upper density has only bounded gaps. Since D\mathfrak D is a filter, the union and the intersection of two members of D\mathfrak D are again members, and if AA has positive upper density and D∞(A)⊆B⊆N0\mathcal D_\infty(A)\subseteq B\subseteq\mathbb N_0, then B=D∞(C)B=\mathcal D_\infty(C) for some CC of positive upper density. Neither ordinary-difference sets nor density-difference sets have this superset property: for the even non-negative integers EE, D(E)=D0(E)=E\mathcal D(E)=\mathcal D_0(E)=E, while E∪{1}E\cup\{1\} is not the ordinary-difference set of any set, and, with a pointer to Stewart and Tijdeman's paper on density-difference sets, no AA has D0(A)=E∪{1}\mathcal D_0(A)=E\cup\{1\}.

Proof pointer

The survey gives no proof; it points to Stewart and Tijdeman, On infinite-difference sets of sequences of positive integers (reference [14] of the survey, Canad. J. Math.).

Read depth

Claims checked: Theorem 5 and the remarks after it were read clause by clause on the page image of the print. The proof is not in the survey and was not checked.

Dependencies

Theorem 2 for the bounded-gaps remark. External input: the cited Stewart-Tijdeman paper.

Source. Cam L. Stewart, On difference sets of sets of integers, Séminaire Delange-Pisot-Poitou, Théorie des nombres, 19e année (1977/78), Fasc. 1, Exp. No. 5, 8 pp.; pages are cited by the print's own numbering 5-01 to 5-08, as on the source card.

Bears on

No Erdős problem page of the corpus cites this theorem.