An Introduction to Additive Combinatorics Via 'Carries'

Abstract

When numbers are added in the usual way, "carries" occur. The chance of a carry is about .45 (base 10). There are other choices of digits that lead to fewer carries (balanced digits). These balanced systems turn out to be best (fewest carries). Showing this requires an excursion into additive combinatorics a la Gowers-Green-Szemeredi-Tao. This is joint work with Shao and Soundarajan.