On the Structure of Additive Systems of Integers

Abstract: A sum-and-distance system is a collection of finite sets of integers such that the sums and differences formed by taking one element from each set generate a prescribed arithmetic progression. Such systems, with two component sets, arise naturally in the study of matrices with symmetry properties and consecutive integer entries. Sum systems are an analogous concept where only sums of elements are considered. We establish a bijection between sum systems and sum-and-distance systems of corresponding size, and show that sum systems are equivalent to principal reversible cuboids, which are tensors with integer entries and a symmetry of "reversible square" type. We prove a structure theorem for principal reversible cuboids, which gives rise to an explicit construction formula for all sum systems in terms of joint ordered factorisations of their component set cardinalities.