On short zero-sum subsequences of zero-sum sequences

Abstract: Let $G$ be a finite abelian group, and let $\eta(G)$ be the smallest integer $d$ such that every sequence over $G$ of length at least $d$ contains a zero-sum subsequence $T$ with length $|T|\in [1,\exp(G)]$. In this paper, we investigate the question whether all non-cyclic finite abelian groups $G$ share with the following property: There exists at least one integer $t\in [\exp(G)+1,\eta(G)-1]$ such that every zero-sum sequence of length exactly $t$ contains a zero-sum subsequence of length in $[1,\exp(G)]$. Previous results showed that the groups $C_n^2$ ($n\geq 3$) and $C_3^3$ have the property above. In this paper we show that more groups including the groups $C_m\oplus C_n$ with $3\leq m\mid n$, $C_{3^a5^b}^3$, $C_{3\times 2^a}^3$, $C_{3^a}^4$ and $C_{2^b}^r$ ($b\geq 2$) have this property. We also determine all $t\in [\exp(G)+1, \eta(G)-1]$ with the property above for some groups including the groups of rank two, and some special groups with large exponent.