Cryptography
Don Coppersmith
IBM J. Res. Dev
Paul Erdös asked how dense a sequence of integers, none of which is the sum of a consecutive subsequence, can be. In other words, let 〈x1,...,xm〉 be an increasing sequence of integers in [1,n], such that there do not exist i, j, and k, with 0 < i < j < k ≤ m and xi + xi+1 + ⋯ + xj = xk. Erdös asked if m > n/2 + 1 is possible. A simple argument shows that m > 2n/3 + O(log n) is impossible. Freud recently constructed a sequence with m = 19n/36. This note constructs a sequence with m = 13n/24 - O(1) and extends the simple upper bound to show that m > (2/3 - ∈)n + (log n) is impossible for ∈= 1/512.
Don Coppersmith
IBM J. Res. Dev
Don Coppersmith, David Gamarnik, et al.
SODA 1998
Mihir Bellare, Don Coppersmith, et al.
IEEE Trans. Inf. Theory
Don Coppersmith, James B. Shearer
Electronic Journal of Combinatorics