Let G be an additive finite abelian group. For every positive integer ℓ, let $dis{c}_{\ell }\left(G\right)$ be the smallest positive integer t such that each sequence S over G of length |S| ≥ t has a nonempty zero-sum subsequence of length not equal to ℓ. In this paper, we determine $dis{c}_{\ell }\left(G\right)$ for certain finite groups, including cyclic groups, the groups $G=C₂\oplus C_{2m}$ and elementary abelian 2-groups. Following Girard, we define disc(G) as the smallest positive integer t such that every sequence S over G with |S| ≥ t has nonempty zero-sum subsequences...

Let ${}_q\left[t\right]$ be the polynomial ring over the finite field ${}_q$, and let ${}_N$ be the subset of ${}_q\left[t\right]$ containing all polynomials of degree strictly less than N. Define D(N) to be the maximal cardinality of a set $A{\subseteq }_N$ for which A-A contains no squares of polynomials. By combining the polynomial Hardy-Littlewood circle method with the density increment technology developed by Pintz, Steiger and Szemerédi, we prove that $D\left(N\right)\ll q^N{\left(logN\right)}^7/N$.

We show that some partitions related to two of Ramanujan's mock theta functions are related to indefinite quadratic forms and real quadratic fields. In particular, we examine a third order mock theta function and a fifth order mock theta function.

For m = 3,4,... those pₘ(x) = (m-2)x(x-1)/2 + x with x ∈ ℤ are called generalized m-gonal numbers. Sun (2015) studied for what values of positive integers a,b,c the sum ap₅ + bp₅ + cp₅ is universal over ℤ (i.e., any n ∈ ℕ = 0,1,2,... has the form ap₅(x) + bp₅(y) + cp₅(z) with x,y,z ∈ ℤ). We prove that p₅ + bp₅ + 3p₅ (b = 1,2,3,4,9) and p₅ + 2p₅ + 6p₅ are universal over ℤ, as conjectured by Sun. Sun also conjectured that any n ∈ ℕ can be written as $p₃\left(x\right)+p₅\left(y\right)+p_{11}\left(z\right)$ and 3p₃(x) + p₅(y) + p₇(z) with x,y,z ∈ ℕ; in...

We study sums and products in a field. Let $F$ be a field with $\mathrm{ch}\left(F\right)\ne 2$, where $\mathrm{ch}\left(F\right)$ is the characteristic of $F$. For any integer $k\ge 4$, we show that any $x\in F$ can be written as $a_1+\cdots +a_k$ with $a_1,\cdots ,a_k\in F$ and $a_1\cdots a_k=1$, and that for any $\alpha \in F\setminus \left\{0\right\}$ we can write every $x\in F$ as $a_1\cdots a_k$ with $a_1,\cdots ,a_k\in F$ and $a_1+\cdots +a_k=\alpha$. We also prove that for any $x\in F$ and $k\in \{2,3,\cdots \}$ there are $a_1,\cdots ,a_{2k}\in F$ such that $a_1+\cdots +a_{2k}=x=a_1\cdots a_{2k}$.