Large set (Ramsey theory)


In Ramsey theory, a set S of natural numbers is considered to be a large set if and only if Van der Waerden's theorem can be generalized to assert the existence of arithmetic progressions with common difference in S. That is, S is large if and only if every finite partition of the natural numbers has a cell containing arbitrarily long arithmetic progressions having common differences in S.

Examples

Necessary conditions for largeness include:
Two sufficient conditions are:
The first sufficient condition implies that if S is a thick set, then S is large.
Other facts about large sets include:
If is large, then for any, is large.

2-large and k-large sets

A set is k-large, for a natural number k > 0, when it meets the conditions for largeness when the restatement of van der Waerden's theorem is concerned only with k-colorings. Every set is either large or k-large for some maximal k. This follows from two important, albeit trivially true, facts:
It is unknown whether there are 2-large sets that are not also large sets. Brown, Graham, and Landman conjecture that no such sets exists.