Properties C and D fail for $C_n^r$ whenever $n \equiv 2 \bmod 4, n\geq 6$ and $r\geq 4$
Let $s(C_n^r)$ be the Erdős--Ginzburg--Ziv constant (zero-sums of length exactly $n$) and $η(C_n^r)$ the short zero-sum constant. Properties C and D of Gao et al.\ assert that every sequence of the extremal length without the relevant zero-sums has the form $T^{n-1}$. For even $n$ they imply $s(C_n^r)=2^r(n-1)+1$ and $η(C_n^r)=(2^r-1)(n-1)+1$. G.~Wang recently disproved both for $C_6^r$, $r\ge4$. We prove that both fail for $C_n^r$ for every $n\equiv2\pmod4$ with $n\ge6$ and every $r\ge4$. More precisely, for these $n$ we have: $s(C_n^r)\ge2^r(n-1)+2^{r-2}+1$.
Authors
- Christian Elsholtz (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2960-4030)
Publication Details
- Journal
- arXiv (Cornell University)
- Published
- 2026-10-26
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.2610.35819
- Primary Topic
- Advanced Combinatorial Mathematics
- Type
- preprint