# Find the shortest Golomb rulers

Golomb rulers are sets of non-negative integers such that no two pairs of integers in the set are the same distance apart.

For example, [0, 1, 4, 6] is a Golomb ruler because all distances between two integers in this set are unique:

0, 1 -> distance 1
0, 4 -> distance 4
0, 6 -> distance 6
1, 4 -> distance 3
1, 6 -> distance 5
4, 6 -> distance 2


For the sake of simplicity in this challenge (and since translation is trivial), we impose that a Golomb ruler always contains the number 0 (which the previous example does).

Since this set is of length 4, we say that this is a Golomb ruler of order 4. The biggest distance in this set (or element, since 0 is always in the set) is 6, therefore we say that this is a Golomb Ruler of length 6.

Find Golomb rulers of order 50 to 100 (inclusive) that have as small lengths as you can find. The rulers you find need not be optimal (see below).

### Optimality

A Golomb ruler of order N, is said to be optimal if there is no other Golomb ruler of order N which has a smaller length.

Optimal Golomb rulers are known for orders less than 28, though finding and proving optimality is harder and harder as the order increases.

Therefore, it is not expected that you find the optimal Golomb ruler for any of the orders between 50 and 100 (and even less expected that you can prove they are optimal).

There are no time limits in the execution of your program.

### Baseline

The list below is the list of lengths of Golomb rulers from 50 to 100 (in order) evaluated with a naïve search strategy (Thanks to @PeterTaylor for this list):

[4850 5122 5242 5297 5750 5997 6373 6800 6924 7459 7546 7788 8219 8502 8729 8941 9881 10199 10586 10897 11288 11613 11875 12033 12930 13393 14046 14533 14900 15165 15687 15971 16618 17354 17931 18844 19070 19630 19669 20721 21947 22525 23290 23563 23880 24595 24767 25630 26036 26254 27218]


The sum of all those lengths is 734078.

### Scoring

Your score will be the sum of the lengths of all your Golomb rulers between 50 and 100, divided by the sum of the lengths of Golomb rulers between 50 and 100 in the baseline: 734078.

In case you did not find a Golomb ruler for a specific order, you shall compute your score the same way, using the double of the length in the baseline for that specific order.

The answer with the lowest score wins.

In case of a tie, the lengths of the biggest order where the two answers differ are compared, and the shortest one wins. In case both answers have the same lengths for all orders, then the answer that was posted first wins.

• Related. (Same challenge in 2D.) – Martin Ender Jan 25 '17 at 9:03
• And OEIS entry. – Martin Ender Jan 25 '17 at 9:06
• When you say rulers between 50 and 100, do you mean the range [50, 100)? So not including the order 100 ruler? Because the baseline only contains 50 elements. – orlp Jan 25 '17 at 10:37
• Side note: the smallest possible length of a Golomb ruler of order n is n(n-1)/2, since that's how many positive differences there are. Therefore the smallest possible score in this challenge is 147050/734078 > 0.2003193. – Greg Martin Jan 25 '17 at 18:05
• @GregMartin Thanks, though this is not quite the "smallest possible score" but rather a lower bound on that smallest possible score! – Fatalize Jan 25 '17 at 18:07

## C#, 259421/734078 ~= 0.3534

### Methods

I finally found a more-or-less readable explanation of the projective field method (Singer's method) in Constructions of Generalised Sidon Sets, although I still think it can be improved slightly. It turns out to be more similar to the affine field method (Bose's method) than the other papers I read had communicated.

This assumes knowledge of finite fields. Consider $q = p^a$ is a prime power, and let $F(q)$ be our base field.

The affine field method works over $F(q^2)$. Take a generator $g_2$ of $F(q^2)$ and a non-zero element $k$ of $F(q)$ and consider the set $$\{a : g_2{}^a - k g_2 \in F_q\}$$ Those values form a modular Golomb ruler mod $q^2 - 1$. Further rulers can be obtained by multiplying modulo $q^2 - 1$ by any number which is coprime with the modulus.

The projective field method works over $F(q^3)$. Take a generator $g_3$ of $F(q^3)$ and a non-zero element $k$ of $F(q)$ and consider the set $$\{0\} \cup \{a : g_3{}^a - k g_3 \in F_q\}$$ Those values form a modular Golomb ruler mod $q^2 + q + 1$. Further rulers can be obtained by modular multiplication in the same way as for the affine field method.

Note that these methods between them give the best known values for every length greater than 16. Tomas Rokicki and Gil Dogon are offering a \$250 reward for anyone who beats them for lengths 36 to 40000. Therefore anyone who beats this answer is in for a monetary prize.

### Code

The C# isn't very idiomatic, but I need it to compile with an old version of Mono. Also, despite the argument checking, this is not production quality code. I'm not happy with the types, but I don't think there's a really good solution to that in C#. Maybe in F# or C++ with insane templating.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;

namespace Sandbox {
class Program {
static void Main(string[] args) {
var winners = ComputeRulerRange(50, 100);
int total = 0;
for (int i = 50; i <= 100; i++) {
Console.WriteLine("{0}:\t{1}", i, winners[i][i - 1]);
total += winners[i][i - 1];
}
Console.WriteLine("\t{0}", total);
}

static IDictionary<int, int[]> ComputeRulerRange(int min, int max) {
var best = new Dictionary<int, int[]>();

var naive = Naive(max);
for (int i = min; i <= max; i++) best[i] = naive.Take(i).ToArray();

var finiteFields = FiniteFields(max * 11 / 10).OrderBy(x => x.Size).ToArray();

// The projective plane method generates rulers of length p^a + 1 for prime powers p^a.
// We can then look at subrulers for a reasonable range, say down to two prime powers below.
for (int ppi = 0; ppi < finiteFields.Length; ppi++) {
// Range under consideration
var field = finiteFields[ppi];
int q = field.Size;
int subFrom = Math.Max(min, ppi >= 2 ? finiteFields[ppi - 2].Size : 1);
int subTo = Math.Min(max, q + 1);
if (subTo < subFrom) continue;

int m = q * q + q + 1;
foreach (var ruler in ProjectiveRulers(field)) {
for (int sub = subFrom; sub <= subTo; sub++) {
var subruler = BestSubruler(ruler, sub, m);
if (subruler[sub - 1] < best[sub][sub - 1]) best[sub] = subruler;
}
}
}

// Similarly for the affine plane method, which generates rulers of length p^a for prime powers p^a
for (int ppi = 0; ppi < finiteFields.Length; ppi++) {
// Range under consideration
var field = finiteFields[ppi];
int q = field.Size;
int subFrom = Math.Max(min, ppi >= 2 ? finiteFields[ppi - 2].Size : 1);
int subTo = Math.Min(max, q);
if (subTo < subFrom) continue;

int m = q * q - 1;
foreach (var ruler in AffineRulers(field)) {
for (int sub = subFrom; sub <= subTo; sub++) {
var subruler = BestSubruler(ruler, sub, m);
if (subruler[sub - 1] < best[sub][sub - 1]) best[sub] = subruler;
}
}
}

return best;
}

static int[] BestSubruler(int[] ruler, int sub, int m) {
int[] expand = new int[ruler.Length + sub - 1];
for (int i = 0; i < ruler.Length; i++) expand[i] = ruler[i];
for (int i = 0; i < sub - 1; i++) expand[ruler.Length + i] = ruler[i] + m;

int best = m, bestIdx = -1;
for (int i = 0; i < ruler.Length; i++) {
if (expand[i + sub - 1] - expand[i] < best) {
best = expand[i + sub - 1] - expand[i];
bestIdx = i;
}
}

return expand.Skip(bestIdx).Take(sub).Select(x => x - ruler[bestIdx]).ToArray();
}

static IEnumerable<int[]> ProjectiveRulers(FiniteField field) {
var q = field.Size;
var fq3 = PowerField.Create(field, 3);
var m = q * q + q + 1;
var g = fq3.Generators.First();

// Define the set T<k> = {0} \union {a \in [q^3-1] : g^a - kg \in F(q)} for 0 != k \in F(q)
// This could alternatively be T<k> = {0} \union {log_g(b - kg) : b in F(q)} for 0 != k \in F(q)
// Then T<k> % (q^2 + q + 1) gives a Golomb ruler.
// For a given generator we seem to get the same ruler for every k.
var t_k = new HashSet<int>();
var ga = fq3.One;
for (int a = 1; a < fq3.Size; a++) {
ga = ga * g;
if (fq3.Convert(ga + g) < q) t_k.Add(a % m);
}

// TODO: optimise by detecting duplicates
for (int s = 1; s < m; s++) {
if (Gcd(s, m) == 1) yield return t_k.Select(x => x * s % m).OrderBy(x => x).ToArray();
}
}

static IEnumerable<int[]> AffineRulers(FiniteField field) {
var q = field.Size;
var fq2 = PowerField.Create(field, 2);
var m = q * q - 1;
var g = fq2.Generators.First();

// Define the set T<k> = {0} \union {a \in [q^2-1] : g^a - kg \in F(q)} for 0 != k \in F(q)
// Then T<k> % (q^2 - 1) gives a Golomb ruler.
var t_k = new HashSet<int>();
var ga = fq2.One;
for (int a = 1; a < fq2.Size; a++) {
ga = ga * g;
if (fq2.Convert(ga + g) < q) t_k.Add(a % m);
}

// TODO: optimise by detecting duplicates
for (int s = 1; s < m; s++) {
if (Gcd(s, m) == 1) yield return t_k.Select(x => x * s % m).OrderBy(x => x).ToArray();
}
}

static int Gcd(int a, int b) {
while (a != 0) {
var t = b % a;
b = a;
a = t;
}

return b;
}

static int[] Naive(int size) {
if (size == 0) return new int[0];
if (size == 1) return new int[] { 0 };

int[] ruler = new int[size];
var diffs = new HashSet<int>();
int i = 1, c = 1;
while (true) {
bool valid = true;
for (int j = 0; j < i; j++) {
if (diffs.Contains(c - ruler[j])) { valid = false; break; }
}

if (valid) {
for (int j = 0; j < i; j++) diffs.Add(c - ruler[j]);
ruler[i++] = c;
if (i == size) return ruler;
}

c++;
}
}

static IEnumerable<FiniteField> FiniteFields(int max) {
bool[] isComposite = new bool[max + 1];
for (int p = 2; p < isComposite.Length; p++) {
if (!isComposite[p]) {
FiniteField baseField = new PrimeField(p); yield return baseField;
for (int pp = p * p, pow = 2; pp < max; pp *= p, pow++) yield return PowerField.Create(baseField, pow);
for (int pq = p * p; pq <= max; pq += p) isComposite[pq] = true;
}
}
}
}

public abstract class FiniteField {
private Lazy<FiniteFieldElement> _Zero;
private Lazy<FiniteFieldElement> _One;

public FiniteFieldElement Zero { get { return _Zero.Value; } }
public FiniteFieldElement One { get { return _One.Value; } }
public IEnumerable<FiniteFieldElement> Generators {
get {
for (int _g = 1; _g < Size; _g++) {
int pow = 0;
FiniteFieldElement g = Convert(_g), gpow = One;
while (true) {
pow++;
gpow = gpow * g;
if (gpow == One) break;
if (pow > Size) {
throw new Exception("Is this really a field? " + this);
}
}
if (pow == Size - 1) yield return g;
}
}
}

public abstract int Size { get; }
internal abstract FiniteFieldElement Convert(int i);
internal abstract int Convert(FiniteFieldElement f);

internal abstract bool Eq(FiniteFieldElement a, FiniteFieldElement b);
internal abstract FiniteFieldElement Negate(FiniteFieldElement a);
internal abstract FiniteFieldElement Add(FiniteFieldElement a, FiniteFieldElement b);
internal abstract FiniteFieldElement Mul(FiniteFieldElement a, FiniteFieldElement b);

protected FiniteField() {
_Zero = new Lazy<FiniteFieldElement>(() => Convert(0));
_One = new Lazy<FiniteFieldElement>(() => Convert(1));
}
}

public abstract class FiniteFieldElement {
internal abstract FiniteField Field { get; }

public static FiniteFieldElement operator -(FiniteFieldElement a) {
return a.Field.Negate(a);
}

public static FiniteFieldElement operator +(FiniteFieldElement a, FiniteFieldElement b) {
if (a.Field != b.Field) throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException("b");
}

public static FiniteFieldElement operator *(FiniteFieldElement a, FiniteFieldElement b) {
if (a.Field != b.Field) throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException("b");
return a.Field.Mul(a, b);
}

public static bool operator ==(FiniteFieldElement a, FiniteFieldElement b) {
if (Equals(a, null)) return Equals(b, null);
else if (Equals(b, null)) return false;

if (a.Field != b.Field) throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException("b");
return a.Field.Eq(a, b);
}

public static bool operator !=(FiniteFieldElement a, FiniteFieldElement b) { return !(a == b); }

public override bool Equals(object obj) {
return (obj is FiniteFieldElement) && (obj as FiniteFieldElement).Field == Field && this == (obj as FiniteFieldElement);
}

public override int GetHashCode() { return Field.Convert(this).GetHashCode(); }

public override string ToString() { return Field.Convert(this).ToString(); }
}

public class PrimeField : FiniteField {

internal int Prime { get { return _Prime; } }
public override int Size { get { return _Prime; } }

public PrimeField(int prime) {
if (prime < 2) throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException("prime");

// TODO A primality test would be nice...

_Prime = prime;
_Featherweight = new PrimeFieldElement[Math.Min(prime, 256)];
}

internal override FiniteFieldElement Convert(int i) {
if (i < 0 || i >= _Prime) throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException("i");
if (i >= _Featherweight.Length) return new PrimeFieldElement(this, i);
if (Equals(_Featherweight[i], null)) _Featherweight[i] = new PrimeFieldElement(this, i);
return _Featherweight[i];
}

internal override int Convert(FiniteFieldElement f) {
if (f == null) throw new ArgumentNullException("f");
if (f.Field != this) throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException("f");

return (f as PrimeFieldElement).Value;
}

internal override bool Eq(FiniteFieldElement a, FiniteFieldElement b) {
if (a.Field != this) throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException("a");
if (b.Field != this) throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException("b");

return (a as PrimeFieldElement).Value == (b as PrimeFieldElement).Value;
}

internal override FiniteFieldElement Negate(FiniteFieldElement a) {
if (a.Field != this) throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException("a");
var fa = a as PrimeFieldElement;
return fa.Value == 0 ? fa : Convert(_Prime - fa.Value);
}

internal override FiniteFieldElement Add(FiniteFieldElement a, FiniteFieldElement b) {
if (a.Field != this) throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException("a");
if (b.Field != this) throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException("b");

return Convert(((a as PrimeFieldElement).Value + (b as PrimeFieldElement).Value) % _Prime);
}

internal override FiniteFieldElement Mul(FiniteFieldElement a, FiniteFieldElement b) {
if (a.Field != this) throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException("a");
if (b.Field != this) throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException("b");

return Convert(((a as PrimeFieldElement).Value * (b as PrimeFieldElement).Value) % _Prime);
}

public override string ToString() { return string.Format("F({0})", _Prime); }
}

internal class PrimeFieldElement : FiniteFieldElement {

internal override FiniteField Field { get { return _Field; } }
internal int Value { get { return _Value; } }

internal PrimeFieldElement(PrimeField field, int val) {
if (field == null) throw new ArgumentNullException("field");
if (val < 0 || val >= field.Prime) throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException("val");

_Field = field;
_Value = val;
}
}

public class PowerField : FiniteField {

internal FiniteField BaseField { get { return _BaseField; } }
internal int Power { get { return _Polynomial.Length; } }
public override int Size { get { return (int)Math.Pow(_BaseField.Size, Power); } }

public PowerField(FiniteField baseField, FiniteFieldElement[] polynomial) {
if (baseField == null) throw new ArgumentNullException("baseField");
if (polynomial == null) throw new ArgumentNullException("polynomial");
if (polynomial.Length < 2) throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException("polynomial");
for (int i = 0; i < polynomial.Length; i++) if (polynomial[i].Field != baseField) throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException("polynomial[" + i + "]");

// TODO Check that the polynomial is irreducible over the base field.

_BaseField = baseField;
_Polynomial = polynomial.ToArray();
}

internal override FiniteFieldElement Convert(int i) {
if (i < 0 || i >= Size) throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException("i");

var vec = new FiniteFieldElement[Power];
for (int j = 0; j < vec.Length; j++) {
vec[j] = BaseField.Convert(i % BaseField.Size);
i /= BaseField.Size;
}

return new PowerFieldElement(this, vec);
}

internal override int Convert(FiniteFieldElement f) {
if (f == null) throw new ArgumentNullException("f");
if (f.Field != this) throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException("f");

var pf = f as PowerFieldElement;
int i = 0;
for (int j = Power - 1; j >= 0; j--) i = i * BaseField.Size + BaseField.Convert(pf.Value[j]);
return i;
}

internal override bool Eq(FiniteFieldElement a, FiniteFieldElement b) {
if (a.Field != this) throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException("a");
if (b.Field != this) throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException("b");

var fa = a as PowerFieldElement;
var fb = b as PowerFieldElement;
for (int i = 0; i < Power; i++) if (fa.Value[i] != fb.Value[i]) return false;
return true;
}

internal override FiniteFieldElement Negate(FiniteFieldElement a) {
if (a.Field != this) throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException("a");
return new PowerFieldElement(this, (a as PowerFieldElement).Value.Select(x => -x).ToArray());
}

internal override FiniteFieldElement Add(FiniteFieldElement a, FiniteFieldElement b) {
if (a.Field != this) throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException("a");
if (b.Field != this) throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException("b");

var fa = a as PowerFieldElement;
var fb = b as PowerFieldElement;
var vec = new FiniteFieldElement[Power];
for (int i = 0; i < Power; i++) vec[i] = fa.Value[i] + fb.Value[i];
return new PowerFieldElement(this, vec);
}

internal override FiniteFieldElement Mul(FiniteFieldElement a, FiniteFieldElement b) {
if (a.Field != this) throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException("a");
if (b.Field != this) throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException("b");

var fa = a as PowerFieldElement;
var fb = b as PowerFieldElement;

// We consider fa and fb as polynomials of a variable x and multiply modulo (x^Power - _Polynomial).
// But to keep things simple we want to manage the cascading modulo.
var vec = Enumerable.Repeat(BaseField.Zero, Power).ToArray();
var fa_xi = fa.Value.ToArray();
for (int i = 0; i < Power; i++) {
for (int j = 0; j < Power; j++) vec[j] += fb.Value[i] * fa_xi[j];
if (i < Power - 1) ShiftLeft(fa_xi);
}

return new PowerFieldElement(this, vec);
}

private void ShiftLeft(FiniteFieldElement[] vec) {
FiniteFieldElement head = vec[vec.Length - 1];
for (int i = vec.Length - 1; i > 0; i--) vec[i] = vec[i - 1] + head * _Polynomial[i];
}

public static FiniteField Create(FiniteField baseField, int power) {
if (baseField == null) throw new ArgumentNullException("baseField");
if (power < 2) throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException("power");

// Since the field is cyclic, there is only one finite field of a given prime power order (up to isomorphism).
// For most practical purposes that means that we can pick any arbitrary monic irreducible polynomial.
// We can abuse PowerField to do polynomial multiplication in the base field.
var fakeField = new PowerField(baseField, Enumerable.Repeat(baseField.Zero, power).ToArray());
var excluded = new HashSet<FiniteFieldElement>();
for (int lpow = 1; lpow <= power / 2; lpow++) {
int upow = power - lpow;
// Consider all products of a monic polynomial of order lpow with a monic polynomial of order upow.
int xl = (int)Math.Pow(baseField.Size, lpow);
int xu = (int)Math.Pow(baseField.Size, upow);
for (int i = xl; i < 2 * xl; i++) {
var pi = fakeField.Convert(i);
for (int j = xu; j < 2 * xu; j++) {
var pj = fakeField.Convert(j);
}
}
}

for (int p = baseField.Size; true; p++) {
var pp = fakeField.Convert(p) as PowerFieldElement;
if (!excluded.Contains(pp)) return new PowerField(baseField, pp.Value.ToArray());
}
}

public override string ToString() {
var sb = new System.Text.StringBuilder();
sb.AppendFormat("GF({0}) with primitive polynomial x^{1} ", Size, Power);
for (int i = Power - 1; i >= 0; i--) sb.AppendFormat("+ {0}x^{1}", _Polynomial[i], i);
sb.AppendFormat(" over base field ");
sb.Append(_BaseField);
return sb.ToString();
}
}

internal class PowerFieldElement : FiniteFieldElement {
private readonly FiniteFieldElement[] _Vector; // The version of Mono I have doesn't include IReadOnlyList<T>

internal override FiniteField Field { get { return _Field; } }
internal FiniteFieldElement[] Value { get { return _Vector; } }

internal PowerFieldElement(PowerField field, params FiniteFieldElement[] vector) {
if (field == null) throw new ArgumentNullException("field");
if (vector == null) throw new ArgumentNullException("vector");
if (vector.Length != field.Power) throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException("vector");
for (int i = 0; i < vector.Length; i++) if (vector[i].Field != field.BaseField) throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException("vector[" + i + "]");

_Field = field;
_Vector = vector.ToArray();
}
}
}


### Results

Unfortunately adding the rulers would take me about 15k characters past the post size limit, so they're on pastebin.

• Would you be so kind to post your rulers for [50, 100] somewhere? I have a genetic algorithm I want to try out, feeding it some seed values. – orlp Jan 25 '17 at 22:43
• @orlp, added a link. – Peter Taylor Jan 25 '17 at 22:56
• As I suspected, the evolutionary algorithm can extract nothing of use out of these superior specimen. Even though initially it seemed that evolutionary algorithms might work (it pretty much instantly moves from invalid rulers to actual rulers), there is too much global structure required for the evolutionary algorithm to work. – orlp Jan 25 '17 at 23:39

# Python 3, score 603001 / 734078 = 0.82144

Naive search combined with Erdős–Turan construction:

$$2pk + (k^2\bmod p),\, k \in [0, p-1]$$

For odd primes p this gives an asymptotically optimal golomb ruler.

def isprime(n):
if n < 2: return False
if n % 2 == 0: return n == 2
k = 3
while k*k <= n:
if n % k == 0: return False
k += 2
return True

rulers = []
ruler = []
d = set()
n = 0
while len(ruler) <= 100:
order = len(ruler) + 1
if order > 2 and isprime(order):
ruler = [2*order*k + k*k%order for k in range(order)]
d = {a-b for a in ruler for b in ruler if a > b}
n = max(ruler) + 1
rulers.append(tuple(ruler))
continue

nd = set(n-e for e in ruler)
if not d & nd:
ruler.append(n)
d |= nd
rulers.append(tuple(ruler))
n += 1

isuniq = lambda l: len(l) == len(set(l))
isruler = lambda l: isuniq([a-b for a in l for b in l if a > b])

assert all(isruler(r) for r in rulers)

rulers = list(sorted([r for r in rulers if 50 <= len(r) <= 100], key=len))
print(sum(max(r) for r in rulers))

• I don't think this construction is asymptotically optimal: it yields a Golomb ruler of order p and length about 2p^2, whereas there exist Golomb rulers of order n and length about n^2 asymptotically. – Greg Martin Jan 25 '17 at 18:04
• @GregMartin Asymptotically there is no difference between 2p^2 and p^2. – orlp Jan 25 '17 at 18:08
• Depends on your definition of "asymptotically", I guess, but to me, in this context they're very different. – Greg Martin Jan 25 '17 at 18:20

# Mathematica, score 276235/734078 < 0.376302

ruzsa[p_, i_] := Module[{g = PrimitiveRoot[p]},
Table[ChineseRemainder[{t, i PowerMod[g, t, p]}, {p - 1, p}], {t, 1, p - 1}] ]

reducedResidues[m_] := Select[Range@m, CoprimeQ[m, #] &]

rotate[set_, m_] := Mod[set - #, m] & /@ set

scaledRuzsa[p_] := Union @@ Table[ Sort@Mod[a b, p (p - 1)],
{a, reducedResidues[p (p - 1)]}, {b, rotate[ruzsa[p, 1], p (p - 1)]}]

manyRuzsaSets = Join @@ Table[scaledRuzsa[Prime[n]], {n, 32}];

tryGolomb[set_, k_] := If[Length[set] < k, Nothing, Take[set, k]]

Table[First@MinimalBy[tryGolomb[#, k] & /@ manyRuzsaSets, Max], {k, 50, 100}]


The function ruzsa implements a construction of a Golobm ruler (also called a Sidon set) found in Imre Z. Ruzsa. Solving a linear equation in a set of integers. I. Acta Arith., 65(3):259–282, 1993. Given any prime p, this construction yields a Golomb ruler with p-1 elements contained in the integers modulo p(p-1) (that's an even stronger condition than being a Golomb ruler in the integers themselves).

Another advantage of working in the integers modulo m is that any Golomb ruler can be rotated (the same constant added to all elements modulo m), and scaled (all elements multiplied by the same constant, as long as that constant is relatively prime to m), and the result is still a Golomb ruler; sometimes the largest integer is decreased significantly by doing so. So the function scaledRuzsa tries all of these scalings and records the results. manyRuzsaSets contains the results of doing this construction and scaling for all of the first 32 primes (chosen a bit arbitrarily, but the 32nd prime, 131, is well larger than 100); there are nearly 57,000 Golomb rulers in this set, which takes a good several minutes to compute.

Of course, the first k elements of a Golomb ruler themselves form a Golomb ruler. So the function tryGolomb looks at such a ruler made from any of the sets computed above. The last line Table... selects the best Golomb ruler it can, of every order from 50 to 100, from all the Golomb rulers found in this way.

The lengths found were:

{2241, 2325, 2399, 2578, 2640, 2762, 2833, 2961, 3071, 3151, 3194, 3480, 3533, 3612, 3775, 3917, 4038, 4150, 4237, 4368, 4481, 4563, 4729, 4974, 5111, 5155, 5297, 5504, 5583, 5707, 5839, 6077, 6229, 6480, 6611, 6672, 6913, 6946, 7025, 7694, 7757, 7812, 7969, 8139, 8346, 8407, 8678, 8693, 9028, 9215, 9336}


I was originally going to combine this with two other constructions, those of Singer and of Bose; but it seems that Peter Taylor's answer has already implemented this, so presumably I would simply recover those lengths.

• I'm confused by your claim that working in the integers modulo m you can rotate / scale freely. Look at [0, 1, 4, 6] mod 7. If I add 1 we get [0, 1, 2, 5], which is not a Golomb ruler. – orlp Jan 25 '17 at 18:13
• That's because you have to start with a mod-7 Golomb ruler for it to work. [0, 1, 4, 6] is not a mod-7 Golomb ruler because 1 – 0 equals 0 – 6 modulo 7, for instance. – Greg Martin Jan 25 '17 at 18:21
• While I was writing and debugging my finite field implementation in C# I wished I knew Mathematica better. Definitely one of the right languages for the job. – Peter Taylor Jan 25 '17 at 22:51