We investigate additive properties of sets $A,$ where $A=\{a_1,a_2,\ldots ,a_k\}$ is a monotone increasing set of real numbers, and the differences of consecutive elements are all distinct. It is known that $|A+B|\geq c|A||B|^{1/2}$ for any finite set of numbers $B.$ The bound is tight up to the constant multiplier. We give a new proof to this result using bounds on crossing numbers of geometric graphs. We construct examples showing the limits of possible improvements. In particular, we show that there are arbitrarily large sets with different consecutive differences and sub-quadratic sumset sizes.
A set of reals A={a_1,...,a_2} is called convex if a_{i+1} - a_i > a_i - a_{i-1} for all i. We prove, in particular, that |A-A| \gg |A|^{8/5} \log{-2/5} |A|.
A set of reals $A=\{a_1,...,a_n\}$ labeled in increasing order is called convex if there exists a continuous strictly convex function $f$ such that $f(i)=a_i$ for every $i$. Given a convex set $A$, we prove \[|A+A|\gg\frac{|A|^{14/9}}{(\log|A|)^{2/9}}.\] Sumsets of different summands and an application to a sum-product-type problem are also studied either as remarks or as theorems.
We prove a continuous Freiman's $3k-4$ theorem for small sumsets in $\mathbb{R}$ by using some ideas from Ruzsa's work on measure of sumsets in $\mathbb{R}$ as well as some graphic representation of density functions of sets. We thereby get some structural properties of $A$, $B$ and $A+B$ when $λ(A+B)<λ(A)+λ(B)+\min(λ(A),λ(B))$. We also give some structural information for sets of large density with small sumset and characterize the extremal sets for which equality holds in the lower bounds for $λ(A+B)$.
We study extremal problems about sets of integers that do not contain sumsets with summands of prescribed size. We analyse both finite sets and infinite sequences. We also study the connections of these problems with extremal problems of graphs and hypergraphs.
We extend Freiman's inequality on the cardinality of the sumset of a $d$ dimensional set. We consider different sets related by an inclusion of their convex hull, and one of them added possibly several times.
We present an elementary proof that if $A$ is a finite set of numbers, and the sumset $A+_GA$ is small, $|A+_GA|\leq c|A|$, along a dense graph $G$, then $A$ contains $k$-term arithmetic progressions.
A set of positive integers $A \subset \mathbb{Z}_{> 0}$ is \emph{log-sparse} if there is an absolute constant $C$ so that for any positive integer $x$ the sequence contains at most $C$ elements in the interval $[x,2x)$. In this note we study arithmetic progressions in sums of log-sparse subsets of $\mathbb{Z}_{> 0}$. We prove that for any log-sparse subsets $S_1, \dots, S_n$ of $\mathbb{Z}_{> 0},$ the sumset $S = S_1 + \cdots + S_n$ cannot contain an arithmetic progression of size greater than $n^{(1+o(1))n}.$ We also show that this is nearly tight by proving that there exist log-sparse sets $…
Let A be a finite subset of a commutative additive group Z. The sumset and difference set of A are defined as the sets of pairwise sums and differences of elements of A, respectively. The well-known inequality $σ(A)^{1/2} \leq δ(A) \leq σ(A)^2,$ where $σ(A)=\frac{|A+A|}{|A|}$ is the doubling constant of A and $δ(A)=\frac{|A-A|}{|A|}$ is the difference constant of A, relates the relative sizes of the sumset and difference set of A. The exponent 2 in this inequality is known to be optimal, for the exponent 1/2 this is unknown. We determine those sets for which equality holds in the above inequal…
In this note we find the optimal lower bound for the size of the sumsets $HA$ and $H\,\hat{}A$ over finite sets $H, A$ of nonnegative integers, where $HA = \bigcup_{h\in H} hA$ and $H\,\hat{}A = \bigcup_{h\in H} h\,\hat{}A$. We also find the underlying algebraic structure of the sets $A$ and $H$ for which the size of the sumsets $HA$ and $H\,\hat{}A$ is minimum.
Suppose that P is an infinite set of primes such that P = A + B + C, where A,B,C are sets with at least two elements. We show that if P(x) > c x/log^d x (where P(x) = the number of elements of P that are <= x), and if A,B,C is a "regular" triple of sets, then either |A+B| <= d, or |B+C| <= d, or |A+C| <= d.
In the paper we are studying some properties of subsets Q of sums of dissociated sets. The exact upper bound for the number of solutions of the following equation (1) q_1 + ... + q_p = q_{p+1} + ... + q_{2p}, q_i \in Q in groups F_2^n is found. Using our approach, we easily prove a recent result of J. Bourgain on sets of large exponential sums and obtain a tiny improvement of his theorem. Besides an inverse problem is considered in the article. Let Q be a set belonging a sumset of two dissociated sets such that equation (1) has many solutions. We prove that in the case the large proportion of …
We prove that a sumset of a TE subset of (\N) (these sets can be viewed as "aperiodic" sets) with a set of positive upper density intersects a set of values of any polynomial with integer coefficients., i.e. for any (A \subset \N ) a TE set, for any (p(n) \in \Z[n]: °{p(n)} > 0, p(n) \to_{n \to \infty} \infty ) and any subset (B \subset \N ) of positive upper density we have (R_p = A+B \cap \{p(n) | n \in \N \} \neq \emptyset). For (A ) a WM set (subclass of TE sets) we prove that (R_p ) has lower density 1. In addition we obtain a generalization of the latter result to the case of several pol…
Let $A$ and $B$ be additive sets of $\mathbb{Z}_{2k}$, where $A$ has cardinality $k$ and $B=v.\complement A$ with $v\in\mathbb{Z}_{2k}^{\times}$. In this note some bounds for the cardinality of $A+B$ are obtained, using four different approaches. We also prove that in a special case the bound is not sharp and we can recover the whole group as a sumset.
In this paper we determine the number and typical structure of sets of integers with bounded doubling. In particular, improving recent results of Green and Morris, and of Mazur, we show that the following holds for every fixed $λ> 2$ and every $k \geqslant (\log n)^4$: if $ω\to \infty$ as $n \to \infty$ (arbitrarily slowly), then almost all sets $A \subset [n]$ with $|A| = k$ and $|A + A| \leqslant λk$ are contained in an arithmetic progression of length $λk/2 + ω$.
For finite sets of integers $A_1, A_2 ... A_n$ we study the cardinality of the $n$-fold sumset $A_1+... +A_n$ compared to those of $n-1$-fold sumsets $A_1+... +A_{i-1}+A_{i+1}+... A_n$. We prove a superadditivity and a submultiplicativity property for these quantities. We also examine the case when the addition of elements is restricted to an addition graph between the sets.
Let $d \geq 4$ be a natural number and let $A$ be a finite, non-empty subset of $\mathbb{R}^d$ such that $A$ is not contained in a translate of a hyperplane. In this setting, we show that \[ |A-A| \geq \bigg(2d - 2 + \frac{1}{d-1} \bigg) |A| - O_{d}(|A|^{1- δ}), \] for some absolute constant $δ>0$ that only depends on $d$. This provides a sharp main term, consequently answering questions of Ruzsa and Stanchescu up to an $O_{d}(|A|^{1- δ})$ error term. We also prove new lower bounds for restricted type difference sets and asymmetric sumsets in $\mathbb{R}^d$.
We investigate sumset decompositions of quite general sets with restricted prime factors. We manage to handle certain sets, such as the smooth numbers, even though they have little sieve amenability, and conclude that these sets cannot be written as a ternary sumset. This proves a conjecture by Sárközy. We also clean up and sharpen existing results on sumset decompositions of the prime numbers.
We study the extent to which sets A in Z/NZ, N prime, resemble sets of integers from the additive point of view (``up to Freiman isomorphism''). We give a direct proof of a result of Freiman, namely that if |A + A| < K|A| and |A| < c(K)N then A is Freiman isomorphic to a set of integers. Because we avoid appealing to Freiman's structure theorem, we get a reasonable bound: we can take c(K) > exp(-cK^2 log K). As a byproduct of our argument we obtain a sharpening of the second author's result on sets with small sumset in torsion groups. For example if A is a subset of F_2^n, and if |A + A| < K|A…
Let $h$ be a positive integer and $A, B_1, B_2,\dots, B_h$ be finite sets in a commutative group. We bound $|A+B_1+...+B_h|$ from above in terms of $|A|, |A+B_1|,\dots,|A+B_h|$ and $h$. Extremal examples, which demonstrate that the bound is asymptotically sharp in all the parameters, are furthermore provided.
Let $G = (G,+)$ be an additive group. The sumset theory of Plünnecke and Ruzsa gives several relations between the size of sumsets $A+B$ of finite sets $A, B$, and related objects such as iterated sumsets $kA$ and difference sets $A-B$, while the inverse sumset theory of Freiman, Ruzsa, and others characterises those finite sets $A$ for which $A+A$ is small. In this paper we establish analogous results in which the finite set $A \subset G$ is replaced by a discrete random variable $X$ taking values in $G$, and the cardinality $|A|$ is replaced by the Shannon entropy $\mathrm{Ent}(X)$. In parti…
Let $A, B\subseteq \mathbb{Z}$ be finite, nonempty subsets with $\min A=\min B=0$, and let $$δ(A,B)={\begin{array}{ll} 1 & \hbox{if} A\subseteq B, 0 & \hbox{otherwise.} If $\max B\leq \max A\leq |A|+|B|-3$ and \label{one}|A+B|\leq |A|+2|B|-3-δ(A,B), then we show $A+B$ contains an arithmetic progression with difference 1 and length $|A|+|B|-1$. As a corollary, if \eqref{one} holds, $\max(B)\leq \max(A)$ and either $\gcd(A)=1$ or else $\gcd(A+B)=1$ and $|A+B|\leq 2|A|+|B|-3$, then $A+B$ contains an arithmetic progression with difference 1 and length $|A|+|B|-1$.
For a sequence $S$ of terms from an abelian group $G$ of length $|S|$, let $Σ_n(S)$ denote the set of all elements that can be represented as the sum of terms in some $n$-term subsequence of $S$. When the subsum set is very small, $|Σ_n(S)|\leq |S|-n+1$, it is known that the terms of $S$ can be partitioned into $n$ nonempty sets $A_1,\ldots,A_n\subseteq G$ such that $Σ_n(S)=A_1+\ldots+A_n$. Moreover, if the upper bound is strict, then $|A_i\setminus Z|\leq 1$ for all $i$, where $Z=\bigcap_{i=1}^{n}(A_i+H)$ and $H=\{g\in G:\; g+Σ_n(S)=Σ_n(S)\}$ is the stabilizer of $Σ_n(S)$. This allows structu…
Sharpening (a particular case of) a result of Szemeredi and Vu and extending earlier results of Sarkozy and ourselves, we find, subject to some technical restrictions, a sharp threshold for the number of integer sets needed for their sumset to contain a block of consecutive integers of length, comparable with the lengths of the set summands. A corollary of our main result is as follows. Let $k,l\ge 1$ and $n\ge 3$ be integers, and suppose that $A_1,...,A_k\subset[0,l]$ are integer sets of size at least $n$, none of which is contained in an arithmetic progression with difference greater than 1.…
In this paper we present a procedure which allows to transform a subset $A$ of $\mathbb{Z}_{p}$ into a set $ A'$ such that $ |2\hspace{0.15cm}\widehat{} A'|\leq|2\hspace{0.15cm}\widehat{} A | $, where $2\hspace{0.15cm}\widehat{} A$ is defined to be the set $\left\{a+b:a\neq b,\;a,b\in A\right\}$. From this result, we get some lower bounds for $ |2\hspace{0.15cm}\widehat{} A| $. Finally, we give some remarks related to the problem for which sets $A\subset \mathbb{Z}_{p}$ we have the equality $|2\hspace{0.15cm}\widehat{} A|=2|A|-1$.
Let $(G, +)$ be an abelian group. In 2004, Eliahou and Kervaire found an explicit formula for the smallest possible cardinality of the sumset $A+A$, where $A \subseteq G$ has fixed cardinality $r$. We consider instead the smallest possible cardinality of the difference set $A-A$, which is always greater than or equal to the smallest possible cardinality of $A+A$ and can be strictly greater. We conjecture a formula for this quantity and prove the conjecture in the case that $G$ is a cyclic group or a vector space over a finite field. This resolves a conjecture of Bajnok and Matzke on signed sum…
Let $A = \{0 = a_0 < a_1 < \cdots < a_{\ell + 1} = b\}$ be a finite set of non-negative integers. We prove that the sumset $NA$ has a certain easily-described structure, provided that $N \geqslant b-\ell$, as recently conjectured by Shakan and the first author. We also classify those sets $A$ for which this bound cannot be improved.
We describe all sets $A \subseteq \F_p$ which represent the quadratic residues $R \subseteq \F_p$ as $R=A+A$ and $R=A\hat{+} A$. Also, we consider the case of an approximate equality $R \approx A+A$ and $R \approx A\hat{+} A$ and prove that $A$ has a structure in the situation.
Let A and B be finite sets in a commutative group. We bound |A+hB| in terms of |A|, |A+B| and h. We provide a submultiplicative upper bound that improves on the existing bound of Imre Ruzsa by inserting a factor that decreases with h.
If $P$ is a lattice polytope (that is, the convex hull of a finite set of lattice points in $\mathbf{R}^n$), then every sum of $h$ lattice points in $P$ is a lattice point in the $h$-fold sumset $hP$. However, a lattice point in the $h$-fold sumset $hP$ is not necessarily the sum of $h$ lattice points in $P$. It is proved that if the polytope $P$ is a union of unimodular simplices, then every lattice point in the $h$-fold sumset $hP$ is the sum of $h$ lattice points in $P$.
Let $A_1$ and $A_2$ be randomly chosen subsets of the first $n$ integers of cardinalities $s_2\geq s_1 = Ω(s_2)$, such that their sumset $A_1+A_2$ has size $m$. We show that asymptotically almost surely $A_1$ and $A_2$ are almost fully contained in arithmetic progressions $P_1$ and $P_2$ with the same common difference and cardinalities approximately $s_i m/(s_1+s_2)$. We also prove a counting theorem for such pairs of sets in arbitrary abelian groups. The results hold for $s_i = ω(\log^3 n)$ and $s_1+s_2 \leq m = o(s_2/\log^3 n)$. Our main tool is an asymmetric version of the method of hyperg…
Let $\mathbf{A} = (A_1,\ldots, A_q)$ be a $q$-tuple of finite sets of integers. Associated to every $q$-tuple of nonnegative integers $\mathbf{h} = (h_1,\ldots, h_q)$ is the linear form $\mathbf{h}\cdot \mathbf{A} = h_1 A_1 + \cdots + h_qA_q$. The set $(\mathbf{h}\cdot \mathbf{A} )^{(t)}$ consists of all elements of this sumset with at least $t$ representations. The structure of the set $(\mathbf{h}\cdot \mathbf{A} )^{(t)}$ is computed for all sufficiently large $h_i$.
Let $G$ be a finite abelian group of order $n$. For any subset $B$ of $G$ with $B=-B$, the Cayley graph $G_B$ is a graph on vertex set $G$ in which $ij$ is an edge if and only if $i-j\in B.$ It was shown by Ben Green that when $G$ is a vector space over a finite field $Z/pZ$, then there is a Cayley graph containing neither a complete subgraph nor an independent set of size more than $clog nloglog n,$ where $c$ is an absolute constant. In this article we observe that a modification of his arguments shows that for an arbitrary finite abelian group of order $n$, there is a Cayley graph containing…
We prove that the clique number of the Paley graph is at most $\sqrt{p/2} + 1$, and that any supposed additive decompositions of the set of quadratic residues can only come from co-Sidon sets.
Given a set A in Z/NZ we may form a Cayley sum graph G_A on vertex set Z/NZ by joining i to j if and only if i + j is in A. We investigate the extent to which performing this construction with a random set A simulates the generation of a random graph, proving that the clique number of G_A is a.s. O(log N). This shows that Cayley sum graphs can furnish good examples of Ramsey graphs. To prove this result we must study the specific structure of set addition on Z/NZ. Indeed, we also show that the clique number of a random Cayley sum graph on (Z/2Z)^n, 2^n = N, is almost surely not O(log N). Despi…
We provide further explanation of the significance of a construction in a recent paper of Wolf [Israel J. Math. 179 (2010), 253-278] in the context of the problem of finding large subspaces in sumsets.
We prove results on the structure of a subset of the circle group having positive inner Haar measure and doubling constant close to the minimum. These results go toward a continuous analogue in the circle of Freiman's $3k-4$ theorem from the integer setting. An analogue of this theorem in $\mathbb{Z}_p$ has been pursued extensively, and we use some recent results in this direction. For instance, obtaining a continuous analogue of a result of Serra and Zémor, we prove that if a subset $A$ of the circle is not too large and has doubling constant at most $2+\varepsilon$ with $\varepsilon<10^{-4}$…
We study the number of $k$-element sets $A \subset \{1,\ldots,N\}$ with $|A + A| \leq K|A|$ for some (fixed) $K > 0$. Improving results of the first author and of Alon, Balogh, Samotij and the second author, we determine this number up to a factor of $2^{o(k)} N^{o(1)}$ for most $N$ and $k$. As a consequence of this and a further new result concerning the number of sets $A \subset \mathbf{Z}/N\mathbf{Z}$ with $|A +A| \leq c |A|^2$, we deduce that the random Cayley graph on $\mathbf{Z}/N\mathbf{Z}$ with edge density~$\frac{1}{2}$ has no clique or independent set of size greater than $\big( 2 + …
