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Additive Complement


An additive complement of a set A of nonnegative integers is a set B of nonnegative integers such that the sumset A+B contains all sufficiently large integers. For infinite additive complements, write A(x) and B(x) for the numbers of their elements at most x.

Zhang (2026) gave a discrete proof of the sharp implication

 limsup_(x->infty)(A(x)B(x))/x<3/2==>A(x)B(x)-x->+infty.

The threshold is strict. At equality, examples have A(x)B(x)-x=1 for infinitely many x.

Zhang (2026) reports ChatGPT assistance in exploring relations between gaps and Codex assistance in checking and revising proof details.


See also

Additive Number Theory, Sumset

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References

Zhang, Z. "A Sharp Bound for Additive Complements." 21 Oct 2026. https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.29963.

Cite this as:

Weisstein, Eric W. "Additive Complement." From MathWorld--A Wolfram Resource. https://mathworld.wolfram.com/AdditiveComplement.html

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