On strongly sum-free subsets of abelian groups
Volume 71 / 1996
Colloquium Mathematicum 71 (1996), 149-151
DOI: 10.4064/cm-71-1-149-151
Abstract
In his book on unsolved problems in number theory [1] R. K. Guy asks whether for every natural l there exists $n_0 = n_0(l)$ with the following property: for every $n ≥ n_0$ and any n elements $a_1,...,a_n$ of a group such that the product of any two of them is different from the unit element of the group, there exist l of the $a_i$ such that $a_{i_j}a_{i_k} ≠ a_m$ for $1 ≤ j < k ≤ l$ and $1 ≤ m ≤ n$. In this note we answer this question in the affirmative in the first non-trivial case when l=3 and the group is abelian, proving the following result.
