We obtain nontrivial exponents for Erd\H os-Falconer type problems. Let $T_k(E)$ denote the set of distinct congruent $k$-dimensional simplexes determined by $(k+1)$-tuples of points from $E$. We prove that there exists $s_0(d)<d$ such that, if $E \subset {\Bbb R}^d,\, d \ge 2$, with $dim_{\mathcal H}(E)>s_0(d)$, then the ${k+1 \choose 2}$-dimensional Lebesgue measure of $T_k(E)$ is positive. Results were previously obtained for triangles in the plane \cite{GI12} and in higher dimensions \cite{GGIP12}. In this paper, we improve upon those exponents, using a group-theoretic method that sheds new light on the classical approach to these problems. The key to our approach is a group action perspective which leads to natural and effective formulae related to the classical Mattila integral.
In this paper we prove, for all $d \ge 2$, that for no $s<\frac{d+1}{2}$ does $I_s(μ)<\infty$ imply the canonical Falconer distance problem incidence bound, or the analogous estimate where the Euclidean norm is replaced by the norm generated by a particular convex body $B$ with a smooth boundary and everywhere non-vanishing curvature. Our construction, based on a combinatorial construction due to Pavel Valtr naturally leads us to some interesting connections between the problem under consideration, geometric incidence theorem in the discrete setting and distribution of lattice points in convex…
We prove a point-wise and average bound for the number of incidences between points and hyper-planes in vector spaces over finite fields. While our estimates are, in general, sharp, we observe an improvement for product sets and sets contained in a sphere. We use these incidence bounds to obtain significant improvements on the arithmetic problem of covering ${\mathbb F}_q$, the finite field with q elements, by $A \cdot A+... +A \cdot A$, where A is a subset ${\mathbb F}_q$ of sufficiently large size. We also use the incidence machinery we develope and arithmetic constructions to study the Erdo…
The Mattila integral, $$ {\mathcal M}(μ)=\int {\left( \int_{S^{d-1}} {|\widehatμ(r ω)|}^2 dω\right)}^2 r^{d-1} dr,$$ developed by Mattila, is the main tool in the study of the Falconer distance problem. In this paper, with a very simple argument, we develop a generalized version of the Mattila integral. Our first application is to consider the product of distances $$(Δ(E))^k= \left\{\prod_{j=1}^k |x^j-y^j|: x^j, y^j\in E\right\} $$ and show that when $d\geq 2$, $(Δ(E))^k$ has positive Lebesgue measure if $\dim_{\mathcal{H}}(E)>\frac{d}{2}+\frac{1}{4k-1}$. Another application is, we prove for a…
We prove several incidence theorems in vector spaces over finite fields using bounds for various classes of exponential sums and apply these to Erdos-Falconer type distance problems.
We study the following two-parameter variant of the Erd\H os-Falconer distance problem. Given $E,F \subset {\Bbb F}_q^{k+l}$, $l \geq k \ge 2$, the $k+l$-dimensional vector space over the finite field with $q$ elements, let $B_{k,l}(E,F)$ be given by $$\{(\Vert x'-y'\Vert, \Vert x"-y" \Vert): x=(x',x") \in E, y=(y',y") \in F; x',y' \in {\Bbb F}_q^k, x",y" \in {\Bbb F}_q^l \}.$$ We prove that if $|E||F| \geq C q^{k+2l+1}$, then $B_{k,l}(E,F)={\Bbb F}_q \times {\Bbb F}_q$. Furthermore this result is sharp if $k$ is odd. For the case of $l=k=2$ and $q$ a prime with $q \equiv 3 \mod 4$ we get that…
In this paper we study the generalized Erdos-Falconer distance problems in the finite field setting. The generalized distances are defined in terms of polynomials, and various formulas for sizes of distance sets are obtained. In particular, we develop a simple formula for estimating the cardinality of distance sets determined by diagonal polynomials. As a result, we generalize the spherical distance problems due to Iosevich and Rudnev and the cubic distance problems due to Iosevich and Koh. Moreover, our results are of higher dimensional version for Vu's work on two dimension. In addition, we …
The first purpose of this paper is to provide new finite field extension theorems for paraboloids and spheres. By using the unusual good Fourier transform of the zero sphere in some specific dimensions, which has been discovered recently in the work of Iosevich, Lee, Shen, and the first and second listed authors (2018), we provide a new $L^2\to L^r$ extension estimate for paraboloids in dimensions $d=4k+3$ and $q\equiv 3\mod 4$, which improves significantly the recent exponent obtained by the first listed author. In the case of spheres, we introduce a way of using \textit{the first association…
In this paper we study the following multi-parameter variant of the celebrated Falconer distance problem. Given ${\textbf{d}}=(d_1,d_2, \dots, d_{\ell})\in \mathbb{N}^{\ell}$ with $d_1+d_2+\dots+d_{\ell}=d$ and $E \subseteq \mathbb{R}^d$, we define $$ Δ_{\textbf{d}}(E) = \left\{ \left(|x^{(1)}-y^{(1)}|,\ldots,|x^{(\ell)}-y^{(\ell)}|\right) : x,y \in E \right\} \subseteq \mathbb{R}^{\ell}, $$ where for $x\in \mathbb{R}^d$ we write $x=\left( x^{(1)},\dots, x^{(\ell)} \right)$ with $x^{(i)} \in \mathbb{R}^{d_i}$. We ask how large does the Hausdorff dimension of $E$ need to be to ensure that the $…
A celebrated result due to Wolff says if $E$ is a compact subset of ${\Bbb R}^2$, then the Lebesgue measure of the distance set $Δ(E)=\{|x-y|: x,y \in E \}$ is positive if the Hausdorff dimension of $E$ is greater than $\frac{4}{3}$. In this paper we improve the $\frac{4}{3}$ barrier by a small exponent for Cartesian products. In higher dimensions, also in the context of Cartesian products, we reduce Erdogan's $\frac{d}{2}+\frac{1}{3}$ exponent to $\frac{d^2}{2d-1}$. The proof uses a combination of Fourier analysis and additive comibinatorics.
Let $μ$ be a Frostman measure on $E\subset\mathbb{R}^d$. The spherical average decay $$\int_{S^{d-1}}|\widehatμ(rω)|^2\,dω\lesssim r^{-β} $$ was originally used to attack Falconer distance conjecture, via Mattila's integral. In this paper we consider the pinned distance problem, a stronger version of Falconer distance problem, and show that spherical average decay implies the same dimensional threshold on both of them. In particular, with the best known spherical average estimates, we improve Peres-Schlag's result on pinned distance problem significantly. The idea is to reduce the pinned dista…
Let $1 \leq k \leq d$ and consider a subset $E\subset \mathbb{R}^d$. In this paper, we study the problem of how large the Hausdorff dimension of $E$ must be in order for the set of distinct noncongruent $k$-simplices in $E$ (that is, noncongruent point configurations of $k+1$ points from $E$) to have positive Lebesgue measure. This generalizes the $k=1$ case, the well-known Falconer distance problem and a major open problem in geometric measure theory. We establish a dimensional lower threshold of $\frac{d(k+1)}{d+2}$ for Falconer type theorems for $k$-simplices. This threshold is nontrivial i…
We study the Erdös/Falconer distance problem in vector spaces over finite fields. Let ${\Bbb F}_q$ be a finite field with $q$ elements and take $E \subset {\Bbb F}^d_q$, $d \ge 2$. We develop a Fourier analytic machinery, analogous to that developed by Mattila in the continuous case, for the study of distance sets in ${\Bbb F}^d_q$ to provide estimates for minimum cardinality of the distance set $Δ(E)$ in terms of the cardinality of $E$. Kloosterman sums play an important role in the proof.
We study multilinear generalized Radon transforms using a graph-theoretic paradigm that includes the widely studied linear case. These provide a general mechanism to study Falconer-type problems involving $(k+1)$-point configurations in geometric measure theory, with $k \ge 2$, including the distribution of simplices, volumes and angles determined by the points of fractal subsets $E \subset {\Bbb R}^d$, $d \ge 2$. If $T_k(E)$ denotes the set of noncongruent $(k+1)$-point configurations determined by $E$, we show that if the Hausdorff dimension of $E$ is greater than $d-\frac{d-1}{2k}$, then th…
In this paper we study extension problems, averaging problems, and generalized Erdos-Falconer distance problems associated with arbitrary homogeneous varieties in three dimensional vector space over finite fields. In the case when homogeneous varieties in three dimension do not contain any plane passing through the origin, we obtain the general best possible results on aforementioned three problems. In particular, our results on extension problems recover and generalize the work due to Mockenhaupt and Tao who completed the particular conical extension problems in three dimension. Investigating…
In this paper we apply a group action approach to the study of Erd\H os-Falconer type problems in vector spaces over finite fields and use it to obtain non-trivial exponents for the distribution of simplices. We prove that there exists $s_0(d)<d$ such that if $E \subset {\mathbb F}_q^d$, $d \ge 2$, with $|E| \ge Cq^{s_0}$, then $|T^d_d(E)| \ge C'q^{d+1 \choose 2}$, where $T^d_k(E)$ denotes the set of congruence classes of $k$-dimensional simplices determined by $k+1$-tuples of points from $E$. Non-trivial exponents were previously obtained by Chapman, Erdogan, Hart, Iosevich and Koh (\cite{CEH…
