Given a positive real number , determine the sets of real numbers containing , for which there exists a set of real numbers depending on , , such that the elements of the set form a finite arithmetic progression.
Solution
The required sets are , , and . It is readily checked that the elements of the Minkowski product of each of these sets and the set form a finite arithmetic progression.
Now, let and be sets of real numbers satisfying the conditions in the statement, and let (the case is trivial). Clearly, and are both finite.
Let be the difference of the arithmetic progression , consider two distinct elements of , say and , and two distinct elements of , say and , and notice that the elements of , respectively , are integral multiples of , respectively . Scaling and accordingly, we may (and will) assume that and are both sets of integers. Dividing, if necessary, the elements of , respectively , by their greatest common divisor, we may (and will) further assume that the elements of , respectively , are jointly coprime: and . Further, recall that and are both finite and let , respectively , be an element of , respectively , of maximal absolute value. If necessary, multiply by to assume and . Under these simplifying assumptions, we will show that is one of the sets , , , whence the conclusion.
Since and divides for all and in and all in , it follows that divides the difference of any two members of . Similarly, divides the difference of any two members of , and since , it follows that .
Consider now elements in and in such that , and notice that . Moreover, , for otherwise which is a contradiction.
This means that . Now, since , and the elements of are congruent modulo , the only possible options for are either subsets of , or if is even, or finally sets of the form , where . The first two cases are covered by the answer.
To rule out the last option, notice that (since ), and therefore . This means that divides , so and , in contradiction with .