Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-2xdlg Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-17T13:16:51.790Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

On a theorem of Birch concerning sums of distinct integers taken from certain sequences

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 June 2011

U. Zannier
Affiliation:
Istituto di Matematica, Università di Salerno, Baronissi, Italy

Extract

In [1] B. J. Birch, solving in the affirmative a conjecture of Erdὅs, proved the following result:

Theorem 1. Let p and q be coprime integers greater than 1. Then every large natural number may be written as a sum of distinct terms of type paqb.

In fact Birch pointed out that, with similar arguments, one could obtain a stronger version where the exponent b of q can be bounded in terms of p and q. The proofs were entirely elementary.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge Philosophical Society 1989

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

[1] Birch, B. J.. Note on a problem of Erdὅs, Proc. Cambridge Soc. 55 (1959), 370373.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[2] Cassels, J. W. S.. On the representation of integers as the sums of distinct summands taken from a fixed set. Acta Sci. Math. (Szeged) 21 (1960), 111124.Google Scholar
[3] Erdὅs, P.. On the representation of large integers as sums of distinct summands taken from a fixed set. Acta Arith. 7 (1962), 345354.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[4] Perelli, A. and Zannier, U.. On sums of distinct integers belonging to certain sequences. Acta Math. Hungar. 41 (1983), 251254.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[5] Zannier, U.. An elementary proof of some results concerning sums of distinct terms from a given sequence of integers. (To appear.)Google Scholar