Large set (Ramsey theory)

For other uses, see Large set (disambiguation).

In Ramsey theory, a set S of natural numbers is considered to be a large set if and only if Van der Waerden's theorem can be generalized to assert the existence of arithmetic progressions with common difference in S. That is, S is large if and only if every finite partition of the natural numbers has a cell containing arbitrarily long arithmetic progressions having common differences in S.

Examples

Properties

Necessary conditions for largeness include:

Two sufficient conditions are:

The first sufficient condition implies that if S is a thick set, then S is large.

Other facts about large sets include:

If is large, then for any , is large.

2-large and k-large sets

A set is k-large, for a natural number k > 0, when it meets the conditions for largeness when the restatement of van der Waerden's theorem is concerned only with k-colorings. Every set is either large or k-large for some maximal k. This follows from two important, albeit trivially true, facts:

It is unknown whether there are 2-large sets that are not also large sets. Brown, Graham, and Landman (1999) conjecture that no such sets exists.

See also

Further reading

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