Modular Schur Numbers

Abstract

For any positive integers $l$ and $m$, a set of integers is said to be (weakly) $l$-sum-free modulo $m$ if it contains no (pairwise distinct) elements $x_1,x_2,\ldots,x_l,y$ satisfying the congruence $x_1+\ldots+x_l\equiv y\bmod{m}$. It is proved that, for any positive integers $k$ and $l$, there exists a largest integer $n$ for which the set of the first $n$ positive integers $\{1,2,\ldots,n\}$ admits a partition into $k$ (weakly) $l$-sum-free sets modulo $m$. This number is called the generalized (weak) Schur number modulo $m$, associated with $k$ and $l$. In this paper, for all positive integers $k$ and $l$, the exact value of these modular Schur numbers are determined for $m=1$, $2$ and $3$.