No Arabic abstract
Let $G$ be a finite cyclic group. Every sequence $S$ of length $l$ over $G$ can be written in the form $S=(n_1g)cdotldotscdot(n_lg)$ where $gin G$ and $n_1, ldots, n_lin[1, ord(g)]$, and the index $ind(S)$ of $S$ is defined to be the minimum of $(n_1+cdots+n_l)/ord(g)$ over all possible $gin G$ such that $langle g rangle =G$. In this paper, we determine the index of any minimal zero-sum sequence $S$ of length 5 when $G=langle grangle$ is a cyclic group of a prime order and $S$ has the form $S=g^2(n_2g)(n_3g)(n_4g)$. It is shown that if $G=langle grangle$ is a cyclic group of prime order $p geq 31$, then every minimal zero-sum sequence $S$ of the above mentioned form has index 1 except in the case that $S=g^2(frac{p-1}{2}g)(frac{p+3}{2}g)((p-3)g)$.
Let $G$ be a finite cyclic group. Every sequence $S$ over $G$ can be written in the form $S=(n_1g)cdotldotscdot(n_lg)$ where $gin G$ and $n_1, ldots, n_lin[1, ord(g)]$, and the index $ind(S)$ of $S$ is defined to be the minimum of $(n_1+cdots+n_l)/ord(g)$ over all possible $gin G$ such that $langle g rangle =G$. An open problem on the index of length four sequences asks whether or not every minimal zero-sum sequence of length 4 over a finite cyclic group $G$ with $gcd(|G|, 6)=1$ has index 1. In this paper, we show that if $G=langle grangle$ is a cyclic group with order of a product of two prime powers and $gcd(|G|, 6)=1$, then every minimal zero-sum sequence $S$ of the form $S=(g)(n_2g)(n_3g)(n_4g)$ has index 1. In particular, our result confirms that the above problem has an affirmative answer when the order of $G$ is a product of two different prime numbers or a prime power, extending a recent result by the first author, Plyley, Yuan and Zeng.
Let $p > 155$ be a prime and let $G$ be a cyclic group of order $p$. Let $S$ be a minimal zero-sum sequence with elements over $G$, i.e., the sum of elements in $S$ is zero, but no proper nontrivial subsequence of $S$ has sum zero. We call $S$ is unsplittable, if there do not exist $g$ in $S$ and $x,y in G$ such that $g=x+y$ and $Sg^{-1}xy$ is also a minimal zero-sum sequence. In this paper we show that if $S$ is an unsplittable minimal zero-sum sequence of length $|S|= frac{p-1}{2}$, then $S=g^{frac{p-11}{2}}(frac{p+3}{2}g)^4(frac{p-1}{2}g)$ or $g^{frac{p-7}{2}}(frac{p+5}{2}g)^2(frac{p-3}{2}g)$. Furthermore, if $S$ is a minimal zero-sum sequence with $|S| ge frac{p-1}{2}$, then $ind(S) leq 2$.
Let $G$ be a finite cyclic group. Every sequence $S$ of length $l$ over $G$ can be written in the form $S=(x_1g)cdotldotscdot(x_lg)$ where $gin G$ and $x_1, ldots, x_lin[1, ord(g)]$, and the index $ind(S)$ of $S$ is defined to be the minimum of $(x_1+cdots+x_l)/ord(g)$ over all possible $gin G$ such that $langle g rangle =G$. Recently the second and the third authors determined the index of any minimal zero-sum sequence $S$ of length 5 over a cyclic group of a prime order where $S=g^2(x_2g)(x_3g)(x_4g)$. In this paper, we determine the index of any minimal zero-sum sequence $S$ of length 5 over a cyclic group of a prime power order. It is shown that if $G=langle grangle$ is a cyclic group of prime power order $n=p^mu$ with $p geq 7$ and $mugeq 2$, and $S=(x_1g)(x_2g)(x_2g)(x_3g)(x_4g)$ with $x_1=x_2$ is a minimal zero-sum sequence with $gcd(n,x_1,x_2,x_3,x_4,x_5)=1$, then $ind(S)=2$ if and only if $S=(mg)(mg)(mfrac{n-1}{2}g)(mfrac{n+3}{2}g)(m(n-3)g)$ where $m$ is a positive integer such that $gcd(m,n)=1$.
Let $mathcal{S}$ be a finite cyclic semigroup written additively. An element $e$ of $mathcal{S}$ is said to be idempotent if $e+e=e$. A sequence $T$ over $mathcal{S}$ is called {sl idempotent-sum free} provided that no idempotent of $mathcal{S}$ can be represented as a sum of one or more terms from $T$. We prove that an idempotent-sum free sequence over $mathcal{S}$ of length over approximately a half of the size of $mathcal{S}$ is well-structured. This result generalizes the Savchev-Chen Structure Theorem for zero-sum free sequences over finite cyclic groups.
We study the maximal cross number $mathsf{K}(G)$ of a minimal zero-sum sequence and the maximal cross number $mathsf{k}(G)$ of a zero-sum free sequence over a finite abelian group $G$, defined by Krause and Zahlten. In the first part of this paper, we extend a previous result by X. He to prove that the value of $mathsf{k}(G)$ conjectured by Krause and Zahlten hold for $G bigoplus C_{p^a} bigoplus C_{p^b}$ when it holds for $G$, provided that $p$ and the exponent of $G$ are related in a specific sense. In the second part, we describe a new method for proving that the conjectured value of $mathsf{K}(G)$ hold for abelian groups of the form $H_p bigoplus C_{q^m}$ (where $H_p$ is any finite abelian $p$-group) and $C_p bigoplus C_q bigoplus C_r$ for any distinct primes $p,q,r$. We also give a structural result on the minimal zero-sum sequences that achieve this value.