On the independence ratio of distance graphs

A distance graph is an undirected graph on the integers where two integers are adjacent if their difference is in a prescribed distance set. The independence ratio   of a distance graph GG is the maximum density of an independent set in GG. Lih et al. (1999) showed that the independence ratio is equal to the inverse of the fractional chromatic number, thus relating the concept to the well studied question of finding the chromatic number of distance graphs.We prove that the independence ratio of a distance graph is achieved by a periodic set, and we present a framework for discharging arguments to demonstrate upper bounds on the independence ratio. With these tools, we determine the exact independence ratio for several infinite families of distance sets of size three and determine asymptotic values for others.