Four Proofs of Subset Sums

April 24, 2024, 12:15 PM - 1:15 PM

Location:

Mathematics Graduate Student Lounge -- 7th Floor

Rutgers University

Hill Center

Mathematics Department

110 Frelinghuysen Road

Piscataway, NJ 08854

Quentin Dubroff, Rutgers University

I'll give four different proofs of the result that any set of n positive integers with distinct subset sums contains an element larger than 2^{n-2}/sqrt{n}. Along the way, we'll see generating functions, isoperimetric inequalities, Minkowski's theorem in the geometry of numbers, and the Berry-Esseen quantitative central limit theorem.