Skip to content
Preprint

Avoiding four-term progressions from finitely many starts

Sep 2026 · 0 citations · 7 references
Mathematics

Abstract

For every finite set $A\subset\mathbb{Z}$, we construct a bijection $p:\mathbb{N}_0\to\mathbb{Z}$ beginning with $0,1$ that contains no four-term arithmetic progression, in occurrence order, whose first value belongs to $A$. More generally, for each $n\ge2$ the enumeration can begin with $0,1,3,\ldots,2^{n-1}-1$ and simultaneously avoid every such progression starting in $A$ or among these first $n$ entries. The construction uses finitely branching prerequisite relations and an explicit bounded integer potential. This proves finite prerequisite closure and gives an exhaustive enumeration, rather than merely a total order. We also give an extension theorem for finite prefixes with compatible binary-tail constraints. These results do not determine whether every enumeration of the integers contains an ordered four-term arithmetic progression.

View source

Similar papers

Preprint Sep 2026

Deletion thresholds and exponential examples for complete sequences

We prove that the pairs of integers $0\le m<n$ for which a nondecreasing integer sequence can remain complete after every deletion of $m$ terms and become incomplete after every deletion of $n$ terms are exactly those with $m\le1$. Here a sequence is complete if every sufficiently large integer is a finite sum of terms...

Jesse T. Geneson · 0 citations
Preprint Oct 2026

123-Avoiding permutations with an adjacency constraint

We study permutations $\pi \in S_n$ that avoid $123$ while satisfying the adjacency constraint $\lvert \pi_{i+1}-\pi_i\rvert \le m$ for some $m\in\mathbb{Z}^{+}$. We first show that every admissible permutation is localized within vertical distance $m$ of the reverse diagonal, revealing a strong global restriction impo...

Nathan Nadler · 0 citations
Preprint Aug 2026

Unary Functions, Automorphisms, and Unlabeled First-Order Model Counting

It is proved that, for every fixed sentence $\varphi\in\mathrm{C}^1_{=}[f]$, with one unary function and an arbitrary finite relational vocabulary, $\mathrm{FOMC}(\varphi,n)$ is computable in time polynomial in $n$.

Ondřej Kuželka · 0 citations
Preprint Aug 2026

A cardinal trichotomy for topological equivalence classes of countable trees

For a tree $T$, let $[T]$ be the set of isomorphism classes of trees that are mutually topological minors of $T$. Bruno and Szeptycki proved that every locally finite tree satisfies $|[T]|\in\{1,2^{\aleph_0}\}$ and that every tree with a ray containing infinitely many vertices of degree at least $3$ has at least $2^{\a...

Qi Wu, Yong Lu · 0 citations
Preprint Aug 2026

On the Gap of Finite Posets

Let $P$ be a finite nonempty poset with $n$ elements, let $f:P\to\{1,\ldots,n\}$ be a uniformly random order-preserving bijection, and put $h_P(x)=\mathbb{E}[f(x)]$. Aires and Kahn (2025) introduced $\operatorname{gap}(P)$ as the largest difference between consecutive values in the ordered list consisting of $0$, $n+1$...

Alireza Haqi · 1 citation · ⚡1
Preprint Sep 2026

Arithmetic progressions in dense subsets of primitive elements of finite fields

Let $p$ be a prime and let $\mathcal{P}_p$ be the set of primitive elements of $\mathbb{F}_p$. Inspired by the work of Cohen, Oliveira e Silva and Trudgian on consecutive primitive elements, and by the work of Chang on arithmetic progressions in multiplicative subgroups of finite fields, in this paper, using estimates...

Hai-Liang Wu · 0 citations

We use cookies to run the site and, with your consent, for analytics and to show ads. See our Cookie Policy.