Solutions to Two Problems of S\'ark\"ozy and S\'os on Additive Representation Functions

Abstract

For a set $A\subseteq\mathbb{N}_0$, let $r_1(A,n)$ denote the number of solutions of the equation $a+a^{\prime}=n$ with $a,a^{\prime}\in A$, and let $r_2(A,n)$ denote the number of such solutions subject to $a\le a^{\prime}$. These functions are called additive representation functions (as first considered by Erd\H{o}s, S\'ark\"ozy and S\'os). In this paper, we resolve two problems posed by S\'ark\"ozy and S\'os in 1997. First, if $A$ is infinite and $r_2(A,2m+1)\ge r_2(A,2m)$ for every sufficiently large $m$, then the complement of $A$ is finite. This gives a negative answer to Problem 3.1 in~\cite{SarkozySos1997}. Secondly, there exist an arithmetic function $f$ satisfying $f(n) \to \infty$, $f(n+1) \ge f(n)$ for $n > n_0$, and $f(n) = o\left(\frac{n}{(\log n)^2}\right)$, and a set $A$ such that \( |r_1(A,n) - f(n)| = o((f(n))^{1/2}) \) holds on a sequence of integers $n$ whose density is $1$. This gives a positive answer to Problem 3.3 in~\cite{SarkozySos1997}.