New examples of complete sets, with connections to a Diophantine theorem of Furstenberg

Abstract

A set $A\subseteq \mathbb{N}$ is called $complete$ if every sufficiently large integer can be written as the sum of distinct elements of $A$. In this paper we present a new method for proving the completeness of a set, improving results of Cassels ('60), Zannier ('92), Burr, Erdős, Graham, and Li ('96), and Hegyvári ('00). We also introduce the somewhat philosophically related notion of a $dispersing$ set and refine a theorem of Furstenberg ('67).