Minimal zero-sum sequences of length four over finite cyclic groups II


Abstract in English

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.

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