On the integer sets with the same representation functions

TL;DR

This paper characterizes pairs of integer sets with equal representation functions, extending previous results by considering different set partitions and providing explicit structural conditions for such sets.

Contribution

It generalizes earlier work by establishing new necessary and sufficient conditions for sets with equal representation functions when their union excludes a single element.

Findings

Characterization of sets with equal representation functions when union excludes an element

Explicit construction of such sets based on binary representations

Extension of previous theorems to new set configurations

Abstract

Let $\mathbb{N}$ be the set of all nonnegative integers. For $S\subseteq \mathbb{N}$ and $n\in \mathbb{N}$, let $R_S(n)$ denote the number of solutions of the equation $n=s_1+s_2$, $s_1,s_2\in S$ and $s_1<s_2$. Let $A$ be the set of all nonnegative integers which contain an even number of digits $1$ in their binary representations and $B=\mathbb{N}\setminus A$. Put $A_l=A\cap [0,2^l-1]$ and $B_l=B\cap [0,2^l-1]$. In 2017, Kiss and S\'{a}ndor proved that, if $C\cup D=[0,m]$, $0\in C$ and $C\cap D=\{r\}$, then $R_C(n)=R_D(n)$ for every positive integer $n$ if and only if there exists an integer $l\ge 1$ such that $r=2^{2l}-1$, $m=2^{2l+1}-2$, $C=A_{2l}\cup (2^{2l}-1+B_{2l})$ and $D=B_{2l}\cup (2^{2l}-1+A_{2l})$. This solved a problem of Chen and Lev. In this paper, we prove that, if $C \cup D=[0, m]\setminus \{r\}$ with $0<r<m$, $C \cap D=\emptyset$ and $0 \in C$, then $R_{C}(n)=R_{D}(n)$ for any nonnegative integer $n$ if and only if there exists an integer $l \geq 2$ such that $m=2^{l}$, $r=2^{l-1}$, $C=A_{l-1} \cup\left(2^{l-1}+1+B_{l-1}\right)$ and $D=B_{l-1} \cup\left(2^{l-1}+1+A_{l-1}\right)$.