Let~$A$ be a set of nonnegative integers. Let~$(h A)^{(t)}$ be the set of all integers in the sumset~$hA$ that have at least~$t$ representations as a sum of~$h$ elements of~$A$. In this paper, we prove that, if~$k \geq 2$, and~$A=\left\{a_{0}, a_{1}, \ldots, a_{k}\right\}$ is a finite set of integers such that~$0=a_{0}<a_{1}<\cdots<a_{k}$ and $\gcd\left(a_{1}, a_2,\ldots, a_{k}\right)=1,$ then there exist integers ~$c_{t},d_{t}$ and sets~$C_{t}\subseteq[0, c_{t}-2]$, $D_{t} \subseteq[0, d_{t}-2]$ such that $$(h A)^{(t)}=C_{t} \cup\left[c_{t}, h a_{k}-d_{t}\right] \cup\left(h a_{k-1}-D_{t}\right) $$ for all~$h \geq\sum_{i=2}^{k}(ta_{i}-1)-1.$ This improves a recent result of Nathanson with the bound $h \geq (k-1)\left(t a_{k}-1\right) a_{k}+1$.
For a finite abelian group $G$ and positive integers $m$ and $h$, we let $$ρ(G, m, h) = \min \{|hA| \; : \; A \subseteq G, |A|=m\}$$ and $$ρ_{\pm} (G, m, h) = \min \{|h_{\pm} A| \; : \; A \subseteq G, |A|=m\},$$ where $hA$ and $h_{\pm} A$ denote the $h$-fold sumset and the $h$-fold signed sumset of $A$, respectively. The study of $ρ(G, m, h)$ has a 200-year-old history and is now known for all $G$, $m$, and $h$. Here we prove that $ρ_{\pm}(G, m, h)$ equals $ρ(G, m, h)$ when $G$ is cyclic, and establish an upper bound for $ρ_{\pm} (G, m, h)$ that we believe gives the exact value for all $G$, $m…
For a positive integer $h$ and a subset $A$ of a given finite abelian group, we let $hA$, $h \hat{\;} A$, and $h_{\pm}A$ denote the $h$-fold sumset, restricted sumset, and signed sumset of $A$, respectively. Here we review some of what is known and not yet known about the minimum sizes of these three types of sumsets, as well as their corresponding critical numbers. In particular, we discuss several new open direct and inverse problems.
For a finite abelian group $G$ and positive integers $m$ and $h$, we let $$ρ(G, m, h) = \min \{|hA| \; : \; A \subseteq G, |A|=m\}$$ and $$ρ_{\pm} (G, m, h) = \min \{|h_{\pm} A| \; : \; A \subseteq G, |A|=m\},$$ where $hA$ and $h_{\pm} A$ denote the $h$-fold sumset and the $h$-fold signed sumset of $A$, respectively. The study of $ρ(G, m, h)$ has a 200-year-old history and is now known for all $G$, $m$, and $h$. In previous work we provided an upper bound for $ρ_{\pm} (G, m, h)$ that we believe is exact, and proved that $ρ_{\pm} (G, m, h)$ agrees with $ρ(G, m, h)$ when $G$ is cyclic. Here we s…
Let $A=\{a_0,a_1,\ldots,a_{k-1}\}$ be a set of $k$ integers. For any integer $h\ge 1$ and any ordered $k$-tuple of positive integers $\mathbf{r}=(r_0,r_1,\ldots,r_{k-1})$, we define a general $h$-fold sumset, denoted by $h^{(\mathbf{r})}A$, which is the set of all sums of $h$ elements of $A$, where $a_i$ appearing in the sum can be repeated at most $r_i$ times for $i=0,1,\ldots,k-1$. In this paper, we give the best lower bound for $|h^{(\mathbf{r})}A|$ in terms of $\mathbf{r}$ and $h$ and determine the structure of the set $A$ when $|h^{(\mathbf{r})}A|$ is minimal. This generalizes results of …
Merging together a result of Nathanson from the early 70s and a recent result of Granville and Walker, we show that for any finite set $A$ of integers with $\min(A)=0$ and $\gcd(A)=1$ there exist two sets, the "head" and the "tail", such that if $m\ge\max(A)-|A|+2$, then the $m$-fold sumset $mA$ consists of the union of these sets and a long block of consecutive integers separating them. We give sharp estimates for the length of the block, and investigate the corresponding stability problem classifying those sets $A$ for which the bound $\max(A)-|A|+2$ cannot be substantially improved.
Let $k \ge 2$ be an integer. We say a set $A$ of positive integers is an asymptotic basis of order $k$ if every large enough positive integer can be represented as the sum of $k$ terms from $A$. A set of positive integers $A$ is called Sidon set if all the two terms sums formed by the elements of $A$ are different. Many years ago P. Erdős, A. Sárközy and V. T. Sós asked whether there exists a Sidon set which is asymptotic basis of order $3$. In this paper we prove the existence of a Sidon set $A$ with positive lower density of the three fold sumset $A + A + A$ by using probabilistic methods.
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 $r$ be a positive integer, and let $A$ be a nonempty finite set of at least two integers. We let $\tilde{C}_r(A)$ denote the {\em asymptotic $r$-covering number} of $A$, that is, the smallest integer value of $l$ for which, for all sufficiently large positive integers $h$, the $rh$-fold sumset of $A$ is contained in at most $l$ translates of the $h$-fold sumset of $A$. Nathanson proved that $\tilde{C}_r(A)$ is always at most $r+1$; here we extend this result to prove that $\tilde{C}_r(A)$ is always at least $r$, and determine all sets $A$ for which $\tilde{C}_r(A)=r$.
Let $A$ be a set in an abelian group $G$. For integers $h,r \geq 1$ the generalized $h$-fold sumset, denoted by $h^{(r)}A$, is the set of sums of $h$ elements of $A$, where each element appears in the sum at most $r$ times. If $G=\mathbb{Z}$ lower bounds for $|h^{(r)}A|$ are known, as well as the structure of the sets of integers for which $|h^{(r)}A|$ is minimal. In this paper we generalize this result by giving a lower bound for $|h^{(r)}A|$ when $G=\mathbb{Z}/p\mathbb{Z}$ for a prime $p$, and show new proofs for the direct and inverse problems in $\mathbb{Z}$.
We describe the structure of a set of integers $A$ of positive density $δ$, such that $A+A$ contains no squarefree integer. It turns out that the behaviour changes abruptly at the values $δ_0=1/4-\frac{2}{π^2}=0.0473...$ and $δ_1=1/18$.
Given a finite set of lattice points, we compare its sumsets and lattice points in its dilated convex hulls. Both of these are known to grow as polynomials. Generally, the former are subsets of the latter. In this paper, we will see that sumsets occupy all the central lattice points in convex hulls, giving us a kind of approximation to lattice points in polytopes.
A remarkable theorem due to Khovanskii asserts that for any finite subset $A$ of an abelian group, the cardinality of the $h$-fold sumset $hA$ grows like a polynomial for all sufficiently large $h$. Currently, neither the polynomial nor what sufficiently large means are understood. In this paper we obtain an effective version of Khovanskii's theorem for any $A \subset \mathbb{Z}^d$ whose convex hull is a simplex; previously, such results were only available for $d=1$. Our approach gives information about not just the cardinality of $hA$, but also its structure, and we prove two effective theor…
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.
Let $G$ be an additive abelian group and $h$ be a positive integer. For a nonempty finite subset $A=\{a_0, a_1,\ldots, a_{k-1}\}$ of $G$, we let \[h_{\underline{+}}A:=\{Σ_{i=0}^{k-1}λ_{i} a_{i}: (λ_{0}, \ldots, λ_{k-1}) \in \mathbb{Z}^{k},~ Σ_{i=0}^{k-1}|λ_{i}|=h \},\] be the {\it signed sumset} of $A$. The {\it direct problem} for the signed sumset $h_{\underline{+}}A$ is to find a nontrivial lower bound for $|h_{\underline{+}}A|$ in terms of $|A|$. The {\it inverse problem} for $h_{\underline{+}}A$ is to determine the structure of the finite set $A$ for which $|h_{\underline{+}}A|$ is minima…
Let A be a finite subset of an abelian group (G, +). Let h $\ge$ 2 be an integer. If |A| $\ge$ 2 and the cardinality |hA| of the h-fold iterated sumset hA = A + $\times$ $\times$ $\times$ + A is known, what can one say about |(h -- 1)A| and |(h + 1)A|? It is known that |(h -- 1)A| $\ge$ |hA| (h--1)/h , a consequence of Pl{ü}nnecke's inequality. Here we improve this bound with a new approach. Namely, we model the sequence |hA| h$\ge$0 with the Hilbert function of a standard graded algebra. We then apply Macaulay's 1927 theorem on the growth of Hilbert functions, and more specifically a recent c…
Suppose that A is a subset of the integers {1,...,N} of density a. We provide a new proof of a result of Green which shows that A+A contains an arithmetic progression of length exp(ca(log N)^{1/2}) for some absolute c>0. Furthermore we improve the length of progression guaranteed in higher sumsets; for example we show that A+A+A contains a progression of length roughly N^{ca} improving on the previous best of N^{ca^{2+ε}}.
Let $G$ be an additive abelian group. Let $A=\{a_{0}, a_{1},\ldots, a_{k-1}\}$ be a nonempty finite subset of $G$. For a positive integer $h$ satisfying $1\leq h\leq k$, we let \[h\hat{}_{\underline{+}}A:=\{Σ_{i=0}^{k-1}λ_{i} a_{i}: (λ_{0},λ_{1}, \ldots, λ_{k-1}) \in \{-1,0,1\}^{k},~Σ_{i=0}^{k-1}|λ_{i}|=h \},\] be the restricted signed sumset of $A$. The direct problem for the restricted signed sumset $h\hat{}_{\underline{+}}A$ is to find the minimum number of elements in $h\hat{}_{\underline{+}}A$ in terms of $|A|$. The inverse problem for $h\hat{}_{\underline{+}}A$ is to determine the struct…
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 $λk/2 + ω$.
Let A, B and S be three subsets of a finite Abelian group G. The restricted sumset of A and B with respect to S is defined as A\wedge^{S} B= {a+b: a in A, b in B and a-b not in S}. Let L_S=max_{z in G}| {(x,y): x,y in G, x+y=z and x-y in S}|. A simple application of the pigeonhole principle shows that |A|+|B|>|G|+L_S implies A\wedge^S B=G. We then prove that if |A|+|B|=|G|+L_S then |A\wedge^S B|>= |G|-2|S|. We also characterize the triples of sets (A,B,S) such that |A|+|B|=|G|+L_S and |A\wedge^S B|= |G|-2|S|. Moreover, in this case, we also provide the structure of the set G\setminus (A\wedge^…
When defining the amount of additive structure on a set it is often convenient to consider certain sumsets; Calculating the cardinality of these sumsets can elucidate the set's underlying structure. We begin by investigating finite sets of perfect squares and associated sumsets. We reveal how arithmetic progressions efficiently reduce the cardinality of sumsets and provide estimates for the minimum size, taking advantage of the additive structure that arithmetic progressions provide. We then generalise the problem to arbitrary rings and achieve satisfactory estimates for the case of squares in…
Let G be an arbitrary finite group and let S and T be two subsets such that |S|>1, |T|>1, and |TS|< |T|+|S|< |G|-1. We show that if |S|< |G|-4|G|^{1/2}+1 then either S is a geometric progression or there exists a non-trivial subgroup H such that either |HS|< |S|+|H| or |SH| < |S|+|H|. This extends to the nonabelian case classical results for Abelian groups. When we remove the hypothesis |S|<|G|-4|G|^{1/2}+1 we show the existence of counterexamples to the above characterization whose structure is described precisely.
Monochromatic polynomial sumset structures on $\mathbb{N}$
School of Mathematical Sciences, Xiamen University（厦门大学数学科学学院）；School of Mathematical Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China（中国科学技术大学数学科学学院）
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 $h_i$.
For a set $A$ of integers, the sumset $lA =A+...+A$ consists of those numbers which can be represented as a sum of $l$ elements of $A$ $$lA =\{a_1+... a_l| a_i \in A_i \}. $$ A closely related and equally interesting notion is that of $l^{\ast}A$, which is the collection of numbers which can be represented as a sum of $l$ different elements of $A$ $$l^{\ast} A =\{a_1+... a_l| a_i \in A_i, a_i \neq a_j \}. $$ The goal of this paper is to investigate the structure of $lA$ and $l^{\ast}A$, where $A$ is a subset of $\{1,2, ..., n\}$. As applications, we solve two conjectures by Erdös and Folkman, …
In the present paper we show that if A is a set of n real numbers, and the product set A.A has at most n^(1+c) elements, then the k-fold sumset kA has at least n^(log(k/2)/2 log 2 + 1/2 - f_k(c)) elements, where f_k(c) -> 0 as c -> 0. We believe that the methods in this paper might lead to a much stronger result; indeed, using a result of Trevor Wooley on Vinogradov's Mean Value Theorem and the Tarry-Escott Problem, we show that if |A.A| < n^(1+c), then |k(A.A)| > n^(Omega((k/log k)^(1/3))), for c small enough in terms of k (we believe that a certain modification of this argument can perhaps p…
Let $h$ be a positive integer and let $\varepsilon > 0$. The Haight-Ruzsa method produces a positive integer $m^*$ and a subset $A$ of the additive abelian group $\mathbf{Z}/m^*\mathbf{Z}$ such that the difference set is large in the sense that $A-A = \mathbf{Z}/m^*\mathbf{Z}$ and $h$-fold sumset is small in the sense that $|hA| < \varepsilon m^*$. This note describes, and in a modest way extends, the Haight-Ruzsa argument, and constructs sets with more differences than multiple sums in other additive abelian groups.
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 $A_1$ 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 $\mathcal{A}$ be a finite set of integers, and let $h\mathcal{A}$ denote the $h$-fold sumset of $\mathcal{A}$. Let $(h\mathcal{A})^{(t)}$ be subset of $h\mathcal{A}$ consisting of all integers that have at least $t$ representations as a sum of $h$ elements of $\mathcal{A}$. The structure of the set $(h\mathcal{A})^{(t)}$ is completely determined for all $h \geq h_t$.
We give the structure of discrete two-dimensional finite sets $A,\,B\subseteq \R^2$ which are extremal for the recently obtained inequality $|A+B|\ge (\frac{|A|}{m}+\frac{|B|}{n}-1)(m+n-1)$, where $m$ and $n$ are the minimum number of parallel lines covering $A$ and $B$ respectively. Via compression techniques, the above bound also holds when $m$ is the maximal number of points of $A$ contained in one of the parallel lines covering $A$ and $n$ is the maximal number of points of $B$ contained in one of the parallel lines covering $B$. When $m,\,n\geq 2$, we are able to characterize the case of …
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…
We prove a new class of low-energy decompositions which, amongst other consequences, imply that any finite set $A$ of integers may be written as $A = B \cup C$, where $B$ and $C$ are disjoint sets satisfying \[ |\{ (b_1, \dots, b_{2s}) \in B^{2s} \ | \ b_1 + \dots + b_{s} = b_{s+1} + \dots + b_{2s}\}| \ll_{s} |B|^{2s - (\log \log s)^{1/2 - o(1)}} \] and \[ |\{ (c_1, \dots, c_{2s}) \in C^{2s} \ | \ c_1 \dots c_{s} = c_{s+1} \dots c_{2s} \}| \ll_{s} |C|^{2s - (\log \log s)^{1/2 - o(1)}}.\] This generalises previous results of Bourgain--Chang on many-fold sumsets and product sets to the setting o…
Let $G\cong \mathbb Z/m_1\mathbb Z\times\ldots\times \mathbb Z/m_r\mathbb Z$ be a finite abelian group with $m_1\mid\ldots\mid m_r=\exp(G)$. The Kemperman Structure Theorem characterizes all subsets $A,\,B\subseteq G$ satisfying $|A+B|<|A|+|B|$ and has been extended to cover the case when $|A+B|\leq |A|+|B|$. Utilizing these results, we provide a precise structural description of all finite subsets $A\subseteq G$ with $|nA|\leq (|A|+1)n-3$ when $n\geq 3$ (also when $G$ is infinite), in which case many of the pathological possibilities from the case $n=2$ vanish, particularly for large $n\geq \…
