Suppose and , satisfying that are distinct from each other. . Determine the maximal value of .
Solution
Suppose and for , satisfying that , , are distinct from each other. Here, . We aim to determine the maximal value of .
To generalize, let . We will show that the answer is for a general .
Represent with by the point in the plane.
Claim: if and only if the associated points form a (possibly degenerate) parallelogram with a pair of sides parallel to the line .
Proof: Consider the points and in the plane. The sum set corresponds to the set of sums of coordinates. If , then the sums must be the same, implying the points form a parallelogram with sides parallel to .
Finish: In any right triangle lattice of points on each of its legs, if there are more than vertices chosen, then 4 points will form a parallelogram with a pair of sides parallel to the line .
Proof: Let denote the number of points lying on for . Consider pairwise differences of points on the same line . There are such differences, and no two can be the same (else a possibly degenerate parallelogram with sides parallel to can be formed). Moreover, each difference must be of the form for some . When , we have , leading to a contradiction.
For construction, take the vertices along the legs of the right triangle.
Thus, the maximal value of is:
Note: The original forum solution contained a mistake in the final boxed answer. The correct maximal value of is , not .