In Ramsey theory, a set S of natural numbers is considered to be a large set if and only if Van der Waerden's theorem can be generalized to assert the existence of arithmetic progressions with common difference in S. That is, S is large if and only if every finite partition of the natural numbers has a cell containing arbitrarily long arithmetic progressions having common differences in S.

Examples

• The natural numbers are large. This is precisely the assertion of Van der Waerden's theorem.

• The even numbers are large.

Properties

Necessary conditions for largeness include:

• If S is large, for any natural number n, S must contain at least one multiple (equivalently, infinitely many multiples) of n.

• is large, it is not the case that sk≥3sk-1 for k≥ 2.

Two sufficient conditions are:

• If S contains n-cubes for arbitrarily large n, then S is large.

• is large.

The first sufficient condition implies that if S is a thick set, then S is large.

Other facts about large sets include:

• If S is large and F is finite, then S–F is large.

• is large.

• is also large.

is large.

2-large and k-large sets

A set is k-large, for a natural number k > 0, when it meets the conditions for largeness when the restatement of van der Waerden's theorem is concerned only with k-colorings. Every set is either large or k-large for some maximal k. This follows from two important, albeit trivially true, facts:

• k-largeness implies (k-1)-largeness for k1

• k-largeness for all k implies largeness.

It is unknown whether there are 2-large sets that are not also large sets. Brown, Graham, and Landman (1999) conjecture that no such sets exists.

See also

• Partition of a set

Further reading

External links

• Mathworld: van der Waerden's Theorem