Generalizing the Distribution of Missing Sums in Sumsets

TL;DR

This paper generalizes the analysis of the distribution of missing sums in sumsets, providing formulas and bounds for all probabilities, investigating the shape of the distribution, and extending the framework to correlated sumsets.

Contribution

It offers a closed-form for expected value and variance of sumset sizes for all probabilities, studies the distribution's shape, and extends the framework to correlated sumsets.

Findings

Derived formulas for expectation and variance of sumset sizes for all p

Identified conditions under which the distribution has a divot at 1

Extended the graph-theoretic framework to correlated sumsets

Abstract

Given a finite set of integers $A$, its sumset is $A+A:= \{a_i+a_j \mid a_i,a_j\in A\}$. We examine $|A+A|$ as a random variable, where $A\subset I_n = [0,n-1]$, the set of integers from 0 to $n-1$, so that each element of $I_n$ is in $A$ with a fixed probability $p \in (0,1)$. Recently, Martin and O'Bryant studied the case in which $p=1/2$ and found a closed form for $\mathbb{E}[|A+A|]$. Lazarev, Miller, and O'Bryant extended the result to find a numerical estimate for $\text{Var}(|A+A|)$ and bounds on the number of missing sums in $A+A$, $m_{n\,;\,p}(k) := \mathbb{P}(2n-1-|A+A|=k)$. Their primary tool was a graph-theoretic framework which we now generalize to provide a closed form for $\mathbb{E}[|A+A|]$ and $\text{Var}(|A+A|)$ for all $p\in (0,1)$ and establish good bounds for $\mathbb{E}[|A+A|]$ and $m_{n\,;\,p}(k)$. We continue to investigate $m_{n\,;\,p}(k)$ by studying $m_p(k) = \lim_{n\to\infty}m_{n\,;\,p}(k)$, proven to exist by Zhao. Lazarev, Miller, and O'Bryant proved that, for $p=1/2$, $m_{1/2}(6)>m_{1/2}(7)<m_{1/2}(8)$. This distribution is not unimodal, and is said to have a "divot" at 7. We report results investigating this divot as $p$ varies, and through both theoretical and numerical analysis, prove that for $p\geq 0.68$ there is a divot at $1$; that is, $m_{p}(0)>m_{p}(1)<m_{p}(2)$. Finally, we extend the graph-theoretic framework originally introduced by Lazarev, Miller, and O'Bryant to correlated sumsets $A+B$ where $B$ is correlated to $A$ by the probabilities $\mathbb{P}(i\in B \mid i\in A) = p_1$ and $\mathbb{P}(i\in B \mid i\not\in A) = p_2$. We provide some preliminary results using the extension of this framework.