Let be a given prime number. We call a set of positive integers a p-set if the cardinality of , the set of residues of elements of modulo , is . Determine the smallest value of such that, for any p-set of elements, there exists a p-element subset of with sum divisible by .
(Bayarmagnai G.)
Solution
Answer: The smallest value is for odd and for .
The case is easy so we assume is odd.
Take to be the set . Then is a -set and the sum of all elements of is divisible by . Hence the sum of any elements in is not divisible by . Thus .
Now let be a -set with at least elements. We may assume , where for . Let and let .
If for some , then the remaining elements have sum divisible by and we are done. Thus we may assume that for all . Then we have
It follows that . Similarly, we may assume . Then
This gives a subset with elements with sum divisible by .
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