Erdos Properties of Subsets of the Mahler Set S

Abstract: Erdős proved that every real number is the sum of two Liouville numbers. A set W of complex numbers is said to have the Erdős property if every real number is the sum of two members of W. Mahler divided the set of all transcendental numbers into three disjoint classes S, T and U such that, in particular, any two complex numbers which are algebraically dependent lie in the same class. The set of Liouville numbers is a proper subset of the set U and has Lebesgue measure zero. It is proved here, using a theorem of Weil on locally compact groups, that if $m\in [0,\infty )$ , then there exist $2^{\mathfrak {c}}$ dense subsets W of S each of Lebesgue measure m such that W has the Erdős property and no two of these W are homeomorphic. It is also proved that there are $2^{\mathfrak {c}}$ dense subsets W of S each of full Lebesgue measure, which have the Erdős property. Finally, it is proved that there are $2^{\mathfrak {c}}$ dense subsets W of S such that every complex number is the sum of two members of W and such that no two of these W are homeomorphic.