Sidon set systems

Abstract

A family ${\mathcal A}$ of $k$-subsets of $\{1,2,\dots, N\}$ is a Sidon system if the sumsets $A+B$, $A,B\in \mathcal{A}$ are pairwise distinct. We show that the largest cardinality $F_k(N)$ of a Sidon system of $k$-subsets of $[N]$ satisfies $F_k(N)\le {N-1\choose k-1}+N-k$ and the asymptotic lower bound $F_k(N)=\Omega_k(N^{k-1})$. More precise bounds on $F_k(N)$ are obtained for $k\le 3$. We also obtain the threshold probability for a random system to be Sidon for $k\ge 2$.