The spanning number and the independence number of a subset of an abelian group

Bela Bajnok

Let $A=\{a_1,a_2,\dots ,a_m\}$ be a subset of a finite abelian group $G$. We call $A$ {\it $t$-independent} in $G$, if whenever $$\hat{I}{»}_1{a}_1+\hat{I}{»}_2{a}_2+\cdots +\hat{I}{»}_m{a}_m=0$$ for some inte…