Vol. 15, No. 3, 2021
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The Erdős–Selfridge problem with square-free moduli

Paul Balister, Béla Bollobás, Robert Morris, Julian Sahasrabudhe and Marius Tiba
Vol. 15 (2021), No. 3, 609–626
DOI: 10.2140/ant.2021.15.609
Abstract

A covering system is a finite collection of arithmetic progressions whose union is the set of integers. The study of covering systems with distinct moduli was initiated by Erdős in 1950, and over the following decades numerous problems were posed regarding their properties. One particularly notorious question, due to Erdős, asks whether there exist covering systems whose moduli are distinct and all odd. We show that if in addition one assumes the moduli are square-free, then there must be an even modulus.

Keywords
covering systems, Erdős–Selfridge problem
Mathematical Subject Classification 2010
Primary: 11B25
Secondary: 11A07, 11N35
Milestones
Received: 31 January 2019
Revised: 14 August 2020
Accepted: 18 September 2020
Published: 20 May 2021
Authors
Paul Balister
University of Oxford
Oxford
United Kingdom
Béla Bollobás
University of Cambridge
Cambridge
United Kingdom		 University of Memphis
Memphis, TN
United States
Robert Morris
IMPA
Rio de Janeiro
Brazil
Julian Sahasrabudhe
University of Cambridge
Cambridge
United Kingdom
Marius Tiba
University of Cambridge
Cambridge
United Kingdom