A short note on zero sum problems and EGZ theorem

L Phani Raj

Introduction

Consider the following game. One starts with a deck of one hundred cards (or N cards, for some arbitrary positive integer N). Any number of players may play; one of them is the dealer. The dealer shues the deck, and the player to the dealers left selects a card (any card) from the deck and shows it to everyone. The player to the dealers right writes down the numerical value of the card, say n, and keeps this in a place where everyone can see it. The card numbered his reinserted into the deck, which is reshued. The dealer then deals cards face up on the table, one at a time, at one minute intervals, or sooner by unanimous consent (i.e., if everyone wants the next card, including the dealer, then it is dealt; otherwise the dealer waits for a full minute). A player wins this round of the game by correctly selecting any k > 0 of the cards on the table such that the sum of their numerical values is divisible by n. When all the cards are dealt, the players have as much time as they wish.For example, suppose that n = 5 and the rst card dealt is 16. 16 is not divisible by 5, so the players all immediately ask for another card: suppose it is 92. 92 is not divisible by 5 and neither is 92 + 16 = 118, so if the players are good, they will swiftly ask for the next card. (Of course, if they are any good at all, they will not be thinking of the numbers as 16 and 92 but rather as 1 (mod 5) and 2 (mod 5), but lets present things literally so as to understand the game mechanics.) Suppose the next card is 64. Then someone can win by collecting the 64 and the 16 and calling attention to the fact that 64 + 16 = 80 is divisible by 5. Heres the question: is it always possible to win the game, or can all the cards be dealt with no solution? These kind of problems fall under category called zero sum problems which are famous in number theory.In this report I tried to summarize dierent proofs of Erds Ginzburg Ziv theorem and some other problems of this kind. o

Theorem 1 (Erds Ginzburg Ziv Theorem:). If for some integers o n 1, we are given a sequence a1 , a2 , . . . , a2n1 of not necessarily distinct integers, then there exists a set I {1, 2, . . . , 2n 1} with |I| = n such that ai 0(mod n)
iI

(1)

Proof 1. This the original proof given by Erds Ginzburg Ziv together. o First I prove for n = p(p is prime) and then I generalize to all integers.For p = 2 the statement is obvious.Let us assume p > 2 Lemma 1. Let p > 2 be a prime and A = {a1 , a2 , . . . , as } 2 s < p a set of s integers each prime to p satisfying a1 = a2 (mod p). Then the set s i=1 i ai , = 0 or 1 contains atleast s + 1 distinct equivalence classes. Let us prove the lemma by induction.If s = 2,a1 , a2 , a1 + a2 are all incongruent to each other as none of them are 0.Therefore the statement is true for s = 2. Assume the statement is true for s 1. Let b1 , b2 , . . . , bk be the congruence classes of the form s1 i ai = 0 or i=1 1.If k s + 1 then there is nothing to prove. So let us assume that k = s < p. As as = 0(mod p) there is atleast one of as + bi which is incongruent to all bs.If this is not true then for all i, there will be a j such that as + bi bj (mod p).Consider the sum of k (as + bi ) k bj (mod p). j=1 i=1 But this implies that k.as 0(mod p) which is a contradiction as k < p.Thus the congruence classes of the form s i=1 i ai , = 0 or 1 contains atleast s + 1 distinct equivalence classes,which proves the lemma. Let us take the residues for the given 2p 1 integers under (mod p) and let us arrange according to size as 0 a1 a2 . . . a2p1 < p. We can assume that ai = ai+p (if it is true then there is nothing to prove.)and that p i=1 ai c(mod p).Let us take bi = ap+1 + ai+1 for 1 i p 1. p1 Now consider the linear congruence i=1 i bi c(mod p).If all the bs are congruent then this equation is solvable.Suppose if all the bs are not congruent then from the above lemma the sum p1 i bi has p congruence i=1 classes and so the equation is solvable. Therefore the sum
p1 i=1 i bi

p i=1 ai

0(mod p)

which is the sum of p as and this proves the theorem for primes

Proof 2. This proof is given to Zimmerman Let J = {1, 2, . . . , 2p 1}.Consider the sum S=
IJ,|I|=p ( iI

ai )p1 .

If we expand S,it is a sum of monomials of the form iJ Ci ai ki such that ki = p 1.Let the no.of distinct ai s appearing in one such monomial does not exceed p 1.In this, the only p-subsets I of J contribute to the coecient are those which contain these particular ai s appearing in that particular monomial term.Therefore,the no.of distinct p-subsets I of this type is 2p1j ,which is clearly a multiple of p and so it is congruent to pj 0 modulo p.As this is true of all the coecients of terms,S is congruent 0 modulo p. Now suppose there is no I J such that iI ai 0 under modulo p. Then by Fermats little Theorem,for each I J we have ( And also there are
2p1 p iI

ai )p1 1(mod p)

such subsets,and Therefore we have S

2p1 p

1(mod p)

This is a contradiction to our earlier result and so is our assumption there is no I J such that iI ai 0 under modulo p is wrong and this concludes the proof. Proof 3. This proof is by using Chevalleys Theorem. Theorem 2 (Chevalley Theorem). Let f1 , f2 . . . fr be polynomials in Fq [x1 , x2 . . . xn ],where q = ps (p is a prime and s is some integer) such the deg(f1 )+deg(f2 )+. . . +deg(fr )< n satisfying fi (0, 0, . . . , 0) = 0.Then there exists (1 , 2 , . . . , n ) Fq n with not all i s are zero such that fi (1 , 2 , . . . , n ) = 0 Consider the given sequence of numbers a1 , a2 , . . . , a2n1 in Fp .Consider the two polynomials over (2p 1) variables over Fp : P1 (x1 , x2 , . . . , x2p1 ) = P2 (x1 , x2 , . . . , x2p1 ) =
2p1 p1 , i=1 ai xi 2p1 p1 , i=1 xi

These two polynomials satisfy the conditions of Chevalley Theorem and so there exits a non zero solution common to both of them. But from Fermats Little Theorem xp1 =1,which implies P1 =
2p1 i=1 ai

0(mod p),

P2 =

2p1 i=1 1

0(mod p)

But between 1 and 2p 1,the only number divisible by p is p itself and so this implies that there exists a index set I of size p such that iI ai 0(mod p). Proof for all integers. In the above proofs we proved that the theorem is true in case of primes.In this proof we prove that the theorem is true for all integers. W.L.O.G. let n = pq,where p and q are primes. Let there be 2pq 1 integers given.As the theorem is true for primes, there exists p integers whose sum is zero under modulo p.Now remove these p integers from the original set and and again from the resulting set we remove p integers repeatedly 2q 2 times.Now the resulting set consists of 2pq 1 p(2q 2) = 2p 1,and again by theorem we can again nd a subset whose sum is 0 congruent modulo p. Thus we have found 2q 1 pairwise disjoint subsets I1 , I2 , . . . , I2q1 of {1, 2, . . . , 2pq 1} with |Ii |=p and jIi aj 0(mod p). Now consider the sequence b1 , b2 , . . . , b2q1 where bi = jIi aj and so we again obtained a sequence of 2q 1 elements out of which we can again have a set of q elements whose sum is 0 congruent modulo to q. Therefore we found subset of pq integers in 2pq 1 whose sum is congruent modulo to pq. Repeating this proof for any no.of primes we proved that the EGZ Theorem is true for all integers. Corollary 1. Let n be any integer.Let there is a sequence of integers of length n,then there exists a subsequence whose sum is 0 congruent modulo to n.

Problem
There are lot of dierent kinds of zero sum problems.Below I will give one of them. Let D(p,n) be the smallest no.of elements to be selected from Fp Fp n . . . Fp = Fp so that it always consists of a subsequence whose sum is 0 congruent modulo to p. Solution: Consider the sequence A={(1, 0, 0,...,0),(1,0,0,...,0)...,(1,0,0,...,0), (0, 1, 0, ..., 0), (0, 1, 0, ..., 0), ...(0, 1, 0, ..., 0),

. . .

(0, 0, ..., 1), (0, 0, ..., 1), ..., (0, 0, ..., 1)} with each term repeating p 1 times.Therefore in A there is no subsequence whose sum is zero.So,D(p, n) > n(p 1). n Let (a, b, c, . . . , l) denote a general order pair in Fq . Consider sequence B = {(ai , bi , ci , . . . , li )|i n(p 1) + 1}.Consider the set of polynomials:
n(p1)+1 p1 ai xi i=1 n(p1)+1 bi xp1 i=1 i

. . .
n(p1)+1 li xp1 i=1 i

These set of polynomials satisfy Chevalley Theorem conditions and so these polynomials have a common zero other than trivial solution.Let (1 , 2 , . . . , n ) be the solution such that not all i s are zero.For the terms for which i is p1 not zero,i = 1(by Fermats Little Theorem) and so there exists a subsequence in every sequence of length n(p 1) + 1 so that sum of elements in subsequence is zero element.

Acknowledgement:
1.I would like to thank Mr.Prem and Mr.Mohan kumar for helping me to understand the theory. 2.I would like to thank Mrs.Sonali Gun for suggesting this topic. 3.I would also like to thank CMI and IMSc,for letting me to use library and internet services. 4.Finally I would like to thank all my colleagues who helped in completing this report.

References
[1] P. Erds,A.Ginzburg,A.Ziv, Theorem in the additive number theory, o Bull. Res. Council Israel 10 (F) (1961) 4143 5

[2] S.D.Adhikari,Aspects of Combinatorics and Combinatorial Number Theory, Narosa, New Delhi, 2002. [3] Y.Caro,Zero-Sum problems a survey,Discrete Math.152 (1996) 93113. [4] W.Gao,Note on a A95(2001),387389. zero-sum problem,J. Combin. Theory Ser.

[5] athanson,Melvyn B., Additive number theory, inverse problems and the geometry of subsets, Springer-Verlag, 1996.