A subset $A$ of a finite abelian group $G$ is called $(k,l)$-sum-free if the sum of $k$ (not necessarily distinct) elements of $A$ never equals the sum of $l$ (not necessarily distinct) elements of $A$. We find an explicit formula for the maximum size of a $(k,l)$-sum-free subset in $G$ for all $k$ and $l$ in the case when $G$ is cyclic by proving that it suffices to consider $(k,l)$-sum-free intervals in subgroups of $G$. This simplifies and extends earlier results by Hamidoune and Plagne [‘A new critical pair theorem applied to sum-free sets in abelian groups’, Comment. Math. Helv. 79(1) (2004), 183–207] and Bajnok [‘On the maximum size of a $(k,l)$-sum-free subset of an abelian group’, Int. J. Number Theory 5(6) (2009), 953–971].

Due to a calculation error, the constant in the main theorem is not $80 \sqrt{k\log k}$ but $80\sqrt{k} \log k$. The error was discovered by Xizhi Liu.

For a new discussion on the limit of the method used in this paper see the revised arXiv version of the paper.

We show that the maximum number of convex polygons in a triangulation of n points in the plane is O(1.5029n). This improves an earlier bound of O(1.6181n) established by van Kreveld, Löffler and Pach (2012), and almost matches the current best lower bound of Ω(1.5028n) due to the same authors. Given a planar straight-line graph G with n vertices, we also show how to compute efficiently the number of convex polygons in G.

We show that, for each fixed k, an n-vertex graph not containing a cycle of length 2k has at most $80\sqrt{k\log k}\cdot n^{1+1/k}+O(n)$ edges.

The main result in Y. O. Hamidoune's paper ‘Adding distinct congruence classes' (Combin. Probab. Comput.7 (1998) 81–87) is as follows. If S is a generating subset of a cyclic group G such that 0 ∉ S and |S| ⩾ 5, then the number of sums of the subsets of S is at least min(|G|, 2|S|). Unfortunately, the argument of the author, who, sadly, passed away in 2011, relies on a lemma whose proof is incorrect; in fact, the lemma is false for all cyclic groups of even order. In this short note we point out this mistake, correct the proof, and discuss why the main result is actually true for all finite abelian groups.

We show that for every sufficiently large n, the number of monotone subsequences of length four in a permutation on n points is at least

\begin{equation*} \binom{\lfloor{n/3}\rfloor}{4} + \binom{\lfloor{(n+1)/3}\rfloor}{4} + \binom{\lfloor{(n+2)/3}\rfloor}{4}. \end{equation*}

We describe the C2k+1-free graphs on n vertices with maximum number of edges. The extremal graphs are unique for n ∉ {3k − 1, 3k, 4k − 2, 4k − 1}. The value of ex(n, C2k+1) can be read out from the works of Bondy [3], Woodall [14], and Bollobás [1], but here we give a new streamlined proof. The complete determination of the extremal graphs is also new.

We obtain that the bound for n0(C2k+1) is 4k in the classical theorem of Simonovits, from which the unique extremal graph is the bipartite Turán graph.

Let it(G) be the number of independent sets of size t in a graph G. Engbers and Galvin asked how large it(G) could be in graphs with minimum degree at least δ. They further conjectured that when n ⩾ 2δ and t ⩾ 3, it(G) is maximized by the complete bipartite graph Kδ,n−δ. This conjecture has recently drawn the attention of many researchers. In this short note, we prove this conjecture.