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Source. Theorem 2, p. 2, of Ben Green, The Cameron-Erdős conjecture, Bull. London Math. Soc. 36 (2004), no. 6, 769--778, cited from the arXiv manuscript math/0304058v1 (4 April 2003) whose pages the labels below follow, as identified on the source card.

Statement

A set AA of integers is sum-free when there are no x,y,z∈Ax,y,z\in A with x+y=zx+y=z (x=yx=y allowed). Write [N]={1,…,N}[N]=\{1,\ldots,N\} and SF(N)\mathrm{SF}(N) for the collection of sum-free subsets of [N][N] (p. 1).

Theorem 2 (p. 2). "The number of sum-free subsets of [N][N] is asymptotically c(N)2N/2c(N)2^{N/2}, where c(N)c(N) takes two different constant values according as NN is odd or even." (quoted)

That is, there are constants coddc_{\mathrm{odd}} and cevenc_{\mathrm{even}}, with codd≠cevenc_{\mathrm{odd}}\ne c_{\mathrm{even}}, such that ∣SF(N)∣/(c(N)2N/2)→1|\mathrm{SF}(N)|/(c(N)2^{N/2})\to1 as N→∞N\to\infty, where c(N)c(N) is coddc_{\mathrm{odd}} for odd NN and cevenc_{\mathrm{even}} for even NN. The paper does not give the values of the two constants. In particular ∣SF(N)∣=O(2N/2)|\mathrm{SF}(N)|=O(2^{N/2}), which is Conjecture 1 of Cameron and Erdős (p. 1), the form stated in the abstract.

Proof pointer

Section 2 (p. 2) outlines the strategy and Sections 3 and 4 (pp. 2--11) carry it out. Proposition 6 (p. 7) covers every sum-free subset of [N][N] by one of 2o(N)2^{o(N)} sets with o(N2)o(N^2) additive triples; a structure theorem for large sets with few additive triples (Proposition 7, p. 8) then gives Corollary 13 (p. 10): all but o(2N/2)o(2^{N/2}) sum-free subsets of [N][N] consist of odd numbers or lie in {⌈(N+1)/3⌉,…,N}\{\lceil(N+1)/3\rceil,\ldots,N\}. The final step (p. 11) is not proved in this paper: it combines Corollary 13 with the count, due to Cameron and Erdős (their 1990 paper, the paper's reference [4]), of the sum-free subsets of {⌈(N+1)/3⌉,…,N}\{\lceil(N+1)/3\rceil,\ldots,N\} as asymptotically c(N)2N/2c(N)2^{N/2}. On the way, Proposition 12 (p. 10) rederives from Propositions 6 and 7 the earlier bound ∣SF(N)∣=2N/2+o(N)|\mathrm{SF}(N)|=2^{N/2+o(N)} of Alon, Calkin, and Erdős and Granville (display (1), p. 1).

Dependencies

Proposition 6, Corollary 13 and the Cameron-Erdős count of sum-free subsets of the top interval, which the paper cites and does not prove. Read depth: claims checked; the statement was read on p. 2 and the closing argument on p. 11; the proofs of Sections 3 and 4 were read for their structure only.

Bears on

  • Problem 748: the theorem gives f(n)∼c(n)2n/2f(n)\sim c(n)2^{n/2} for the problem's count f(n)f(n) of sum-free subsets of {1,…,n}\{1,\ldots,n\}, the bound f(n)=O(2n/2)f(n)=O(2^{n/2}) named on the problem page as the Cameron-Erdős conjecture, and with the lower bound f(n)≥2⌈n/2⌉f(n)\ge2^{\lceil n/2\rceil} from the subsets of (n/2,n](n/2,n] the asked exponent form f(n)=2(1+o(1))n/2f(n)=2^{(1+o(1))n/2}. The exponent form alone is the older bound the paper attributes to Alon, Calkin, and Erdős and Granville.
  • Problem 877: background only. The theorem counts all sum-free subsets, not the maximal ones the problem counts; it shows that the problem's question fm(n)=o(2n/2)f_m(n)=o(2^{n/2}) is the same as asking that maximal sum-free subsets be a vanishing proportion of all sum-free subsets, and it gives no bound on fm(n)f_m(n) beyond the trivial fm(n)≤f(n)f_m(n)\le f(n).