On weighted zero-sum sequences

Let G be a finite additive abelian group with exponent exp(G)=n>1 and let A be a nonempty subset of {1,...,n-1}. In this paper, we investigate the smallest positive integer $m$, denoted by s_A(G), such that any sequence {c_i}_{i=1}^m with terms from G has a length n=exp(G) subsequence {c_{i_j}}_{j=1}^n for which there are a_1,...,a_n in A such that sum_{j=1}^na_ic_{i_j}=0. When G is a p-group, A contains no multiples of p and any two distinct elements of A are incongruent mod p, we show that s_A(G) is at most $\lceil D(G)/|A|\rceil+exp(G)-1$ if |A| is at least (D(G)-1)/(exp(G)-1), where D(G) is the Davenport constant of G and this upper bound for s_A(G)in terms of |A| is essentially best possible. In the case A={1,-1}, we determine the asymptotic behavior of s_{{1,-1}}(G) when exp(G) is even, showing that, for finite abelian groups of even exponent and fixed rank, s_{{1,-1}}(G)=exp(G)+log_2|G|+O(log_2log_2|G|) as exp(G) tends to the infinity. Combined with a lower bound of $exp(G)+sum{i=1}{r}\lfloor\log_2 n_i\rfloor$, where $G=\Z_{n_1}\oplus...\oplus \Z_{n_r}$ with 1<n_1|... |n_r, this determines s_{{1,-1}}(G), for even exponent groups, up to a small order error term. Our method makes use of the theory of L-intersecting set systems. Some additional more specific values and results related to s_{{1,-1}}(G) are also computed.