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Problem #332: Let $A\subseteq \mathbb{N}$ and $D(A)$ be the set of those...

Let $A\subseteq \mathbb{N}$ and $D(A)$ be the set of those numbers which occur infinitely often as $a_1-a_2$ with $a_1,a_2\in A$. What conditions on...

Problem Statement

Let $A\subseteq \mathbb{N}$ and $D(A)$ be the set of those numbers which occur infinitely often as $a_1-a_2$ with $a_1,a_2\in A$. What conditions on $A$ are sufficient to ensure $D(A)$ has bounded gaps?
Categories: Number Theory

Progress

Prikry, Tijdeman, Stewart, and others (see the survey articles [St78] and [Ti79]) have shown that a sufficient condition is that $A$ has positive density.

One can also ask what conditions are sufficient for $D(A)$ to have positive density, or for $\sum_{d\in D(A)}\frac{1}{d}=\infty$, or even just $D(A)\neq\emptyset$.

Source: erdosproblems.com/332 | Last verified: January 14, 2026

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