TITLE: Finding a set of maximal sum , such that no two subsets have the same sum.
QUESTION [6 upvotes]: If $S$ represents the set {$1,2,3,...,10$} , then find a subset $X$ such that the sum of the elements of $X$ is maximum , and no two subsets of $X$ have the same sum .

A bit of trial and error shows that the greedy algorithm works , when the number of elements of $S$ is less .
For example , if $S$ = {$1,2,3,4$} , the greedy algorithm yields $X$ = {$2,3,4$} , which is indeed the answer , yielding a maximal sum of $2+3+4=9$ .
However , I have not been able to prove that the greedy algorithm works . Basically , if $X_n$ represents a subset of maximal sum satisfying the problem-condition (where $n$ represents the cardinality of the subset)  , I have to prove that if there exists $X_{n+1}$ , then $X_n \subset X_{n+1}$ .
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

REPLY [3 votes]: First of all, your statement that $X_n\subset X_{n+1}$ is not correct. The conjecture that has to be proved is the following:

Assume that $X_n=\{a_1,a_2,\dots,a_k\}$ is the solution for a set of cardinality $n$. Then $X'_n=\{a_1+1,a_2+1,\dots,a_k+1\}\subset X_{n+1}$ 

All that you need to prove the statement (and much more) can be found in the following paper:
Sums of lexicographically ordered sets
It's not an easy reading but at the hart of it is the OEIS sequence A005255 (Atkinson-Negro-Santoro): "For each $n$, the $n$-term sequence ($b_k = a_n - a_{n-k}, 1 \le k \le n$), has the property that all $2^n$ sums of subsets of the terms are distinct."
The sequence goes like this:
0, 1, 2, 4, 7, 13, 24, 46, 88, 172, 337, 667, 1321, 2629, 5234, 10444, 20842, 41638, 83188, 166288, 332404, 664636, 1328935, 2657533, 5314399, 10628131, 21254941, 42508561, 85014493, 170026357, 340047480, 680089726, 1360169008, 2720327572
How do you find the solution for a set of cardinality $n$? Suppose, for example, that $n$=200.
Step (1): Find the greatest number $m$ in the sequence that is less or equal to $n$. In our particular case: $m$=172
Step (2): Take all the numbers from the sequence that are smaller than $m$. In our case those numbers are: 0, 1, 2, 4, 7, 13, 24, 46, 88.
Step (3): Now calculate the difference between $n$ and numbers isolated in step (2): 200-88=112, 200-46=154, 200-24=176, 200-13=187, 200-7=193, 200-4=196, 200-2=198, 200-1=199, 200-0=200
Numbers calculated in step (3) are the actual solution of the problem:
$$X_{200}=\{112, 154, 176, 187, 193, 196, 198, 199, 200\}$$
The following code is lightning fast and provides solution for any "reasonable" $n$ (even when $n$ has 50 digits):
cache = [0, 1]

# OEIS A005255
def a(i):
    if i < len(cache):
        return cache[i]
    else:
        j = i - 1 - (i + 1) // 2
        result = 2 * a(i - 1) - a(j)
        cache.append(result)
        return result

def solve(n):
    # find the biggest a(i) such that a(i) <= n
    i = 0;
    while a(i) <= n:
        i += 1
    j = i - 1
    return [n - a(k) for k in range(j - 1, -1, -1)]

Some examples:
print(solve(100))
# prints [54, 76, 87, 93, 96, 98, 99, 100]

print(solve(100000))
# prints [58362, 79158, 89556, 94766, 97371, 98679, 99333, 99663, 99828, 99912, 99954, 99976, 99987, 99993, 99996, 99998, 99999, 100000]

And for $n=1,000,000,000$ the solution is:
[659952520, 829973643, 914985507, 957491439, 978745059, 989371869, 994685601, 997342467, 998671065, 999335364, 999667596, 999833712, 999916812, 999958362, 999979158, 999989556, 999994766, 999997371, 999998679, 999999333, 999999663, 999999828, 999999912, 999999954, 999999976, 999999987, 999999993, 999999996, 999999998, 999999999, 1000000000]