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A subset $A$ of the positive integers is an IP set if it contains a finite-sums set generated by an infinite sequence of positive integers. Sums use distinct indices, although the generators themselves need not be distinct. An IP set is necessarily infinite, because its successive partial sums are unbounded. The partition regularity of IP sets is the relative form of the Hindman theorem needed when applying that theorem inside an already specified IP set.

The IP-star sets form a proper filter on a set over the positive integers. Indeed, sets that are not IP sets are closed under taking subsets. They are also closed under finite unions, because the partition regularity of IP sets would otherwise put an IP set in one of the union's constituent sets. Taking complements gives upward closure and closure under finite intersections for the IP-star sets. The full set belongs to this filter and the empty set does not.

Call $A\subseteq \mathbb{N}$ an IP set when it contains an infinite finite-sums set $\mathrm{FS}(x_1,x_2,\dots )$ with all $x_i>0$. We first need the relative consequence of the Hindman theorem: a finite union can be an IP set only if one of its constituents is an IP set. This does not follow by simply applying the theorem to a coloring of all integers, because its monochromatic finite-sums set might lie outside the given set.

Here is a reduction that proves the partition regularity of IP sets. Suppose $\mathrm{FS}(x_i)\subseteq A$ and $A$ is finitely colored. Index the generators by $i\ge 0$. For $n>0$, let $S(n)$ be the set of positions of the nonzero digits in its binary expansion, and color $n$ by the color of ${\sum }_{i\in S(n)}{x}_i$. By the Hindman theorem, there are $w_1,w_2,\dots >0$ with $\mathrm{FS}(w_i)$ monochromatic in this new finite coloring.

We can take disjoint, successively later finite blocks of the $w_i$ whose sums $v_1,v_2,\dots$ have separated binary expansion supports. Start with $v_1=w_1$. Having chosen finitely many blocks, take $K$ larger than every binary position used in their sums. On a fresh tail of the $w_i$, consider $2^K+1$ partial sums, including the zero partial sum. Two have the same residue class modulo $2^K$, by the pigeonhole principle. Their positive difference is a consecutive block sum $v_{j+1}$ divisible by $2^K$. Discard all indices up to that block's end and repeat. Thus every bit of $v_{j+1}$ is above every bit in the preceding block sums.

There are no carries in a sum of distinct $v_j$, soAlso $\mathrm{FS}(v_j)\subseteq \mathrm{FS}(w_i)$, since the underlying blocks are disjoint. Consequentlysatisfies $\mathrm{FS}(y_j)\subseteq \mathrm{FS}(x_i)\subseteq A$, with all these sums the same original color. This proves the relative assertion. In particular, if $A_1\cup \cdots \cup A_r$ contains an infinite finite-sums set, color its points by the first constituent containing them and apply this argument; one $A_j$ is an IP set.

Let $\mathcal{I}$ be the family of sets that are not IP sets. It is closed under subsets and, by the preceding argument, under finite unions. It contains every finite set, since positive successive partial sums of an infinite sequence are unbounded. It does not contain $\mathbb{N}$. Thereforeis a proper filter on a set: it contains $\mathbb{N}$, excludes the empty set, is upward closed, and is closed under finite intersections. Its members are exactly the IP-star sets, the sets meeting every IP set. Indeed, failure to meet an IP set is equivalent to having an IP complement. This identifies the sets that must belong to the required ultrafilter.

Apply the ultrafilter lemma to extend the IP-star filter $\mathcal{F}$ to an ultrafilter $\mathcal{U}$. For completeness, Zorn lemma applies to its proper filter extensions ordered by inclusion, because the union of a chain is still a proper filter on a set. A maximal extension decides every set $A$: if $A$ cannot be adjoined while keeping the filter proper, some filter member is disjoint from $A$, forcing $A^c$ into the filter. This is the defining ultrafilter property.

If $A\in \mathcal{U}$ were not an IP set, then $A^c\in \mathcal{F}\subseteq \mathcal{U}$, contradicting properness. Hence every member of $\mathcal{U}$ contains an infinite finite-sums set. Conversely, any ultrafilter with finite-sums members must contain every IP-star set, since it cannot contain such a set's non-IP complement. Thus this construction captures precisely the forced filter, without making an unnecessary claim about idempotence.

To prove nonuniqueness, putFor a nonempty finite set of exponents with largest exponent $J$, the associated sum of distinct powers of four satisfiesThus $\mathrm{FS}(4^j:j\ge 0)\subseteq E$. Doubling the inequality givesso $\mathrm{FS}(2\cdot 4^j:j\ge 0)\subseteq E^c$. These alternating dyadic intervals contain disjoint IP sets.

Every member of $\mathcal{F}$ meets $E$ and also $E^c$, because it meets every IP set. A finite intersection of members of $\mathcal{F}$ is again a member, so both $\mathcal{F}\cup \{E\}$ and $\mathcal{F}\cup \{E^c\}$ have the finite intersection property. Extend the proper filters they generate to ultrafilters ${\mathcal{U}}_0$ and ${\mathcal{U}}_1$. Each extends $\mathcal{F}$, so the previous argument makes each an ultrafilter with finite-sums members. But $E\in {\mathcal{U}}_0$ and $E^c\in {\mathcal{U}}_1$, so