Let S be an abelian semigroup, written additively. Let A be a finite subset of S. We denote the cardinality of A by |A|. For any positive integer h, the sumset hA is the set of all sums of h not necessarily distinct elements of A. We define 0A = {0}. If A_1,...,A_r, and B are finite sumsets of A and h_1,...,h_r are nonnegative integers, the sumset h_1A + ... + h_rA_r + B is the set of all elements of S that can be represented in the form u_1 + ... + u_r + b, where u_i \in h_iA_i and b \in B. The growth function of this sumset is γ(h_1,...,h_r) = |h_1A + ... + h_rA_r + B|. Applying the Hilbert function for graded modules over graded algebras, where the grading is over the semigroup of r-tuples of nonnegative integers, we prove that there is a polynomial p(t_1,...,t_r) such that γ(h_1,...,h_r) = p(t_1,...,t_r) if min(h_1,...,h_r) is sufficienlty large.
A sumset semigroup is a non-cancellative commutative monoid obtained from the sumset of finite non-negative integer sets. In this work, an algorithm for computing the ideals associated with some sumset semigroups is provided. Using these ideals, we study some factorization properties of sumset semigroups and some additive properties of sumsets. This approach links computational commutative algebra with additive number theory.
Let S be an abelian semigroup, and A a finite subset of S. The sumset hA consists of all sums of h elements of A, with repetitions allowed. Let |hA| denote the cardinality of hA. Elementary lattice point arguments are used to prove that an arbitrary abelian semigroup has polynomial growth, that is, there exists a polynomial p(t) such that |hA| = p(h) for all sufficiently large h. Lattice point counting is also used to prove that sumsets of the form h_1A_1 + >... + h_rA_r have multivariate polynomial growth.
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.
We show that if $P$ is a lattice polytope in the nonnegative orthant of $\R^k$ and $χ$ is a coloring of the lattice points in the orthant such that the color $χ(a+b)$ depends only on the colors $χ(a)$ and $χ(b)$, then the number of colors of the lattice points in the dilation $nP$ of $P$ is for large $n$ given by a polynomial (or, for rational $P$, by a quasipolynomial). This unifies a classical result of Ehrhart and Macdonald on lattice points in polytopes and a result of Khovanski\uı on sumsets in semigroups. We also prove a strengthening of multivariate generalizations of Khovanski\uı's the…
Suppose that $A$, $B$ and $S$ are non-empty subsets of a finite abelian group $G$. Then the generalized restricted sumset $$ A\stackrel{S}+B:=\{a+b:\,a\in A,\ b\in B,\ a-b\not\in S\} $$ contains at least $$ \min\{|A|+|B|-3|S|,p(G)\} $$ elements, where $p(G)$ is the least prime factor of $|G|$. Further, we also have $$ |A\stackrel{S}+B|\geq \min\{|A|+|B|-|S|-2,p(G)\}, $$ provided that both $|A|$ and $|B|$ are large with respect to $|S|$.
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, 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^…
Let $G$ be an abelian group of finite order $n$, and let $h$ be a positive integer. A subset $A$ of $G$ is called {\em weakly $h$-incomplete}, if not every element of $G$ can be written as the sum of $h$ distinct elements of $A$; in particular, if $A$ does not contain $h$ distinct elements that add to zero, then $A$ is called {\em weakly $h$-zero-sum-free}. We investigate the maximum size of weakly $h$-incomplete and weakly $h$-zero-sum-free sets in $G$, denoted by $C_h(G)$ and $Z_h(G)$, respectively. Among our results are the following: (i) If $G$ is of odd order and $(n-1)/2 \leq h \leq n-2$…
For a finite abelian group $G$ with subsets $A$ and $B$, the sumset $AB$ is $\{ab \mid a\in A, b \in B\}$. A fundamental problem in additive combinatorics is to find a lower bound for the cardinality of $AB$ in terms of the cardinalities of $A$ and $B$. This article addresses the analogous problem for sequences in abelian groups and flags in field extensions. For a positive integer $n$, let $[n]$ denote the set $\{0,\dots,n-1\}$. To a finite abelian group $G$ of cardinality $n$ and an ordering $G = \{1=v_0,\dots,v_{n-1}\}$, associate the function $T \colon [n] \times [n] \rightarrow [n]$ defin…
Let A,B,S be finite subsets of an abelian group G. Suppose that the restricted sumset C={a+b: a in A, b in B, and a-b not in S} is nonempty and some c in C can be written as a+b with a in A and b in B in at most m ways. We show that if G is torsion-free or elementary abelian then |C|\geq |A|+|B|-|S| -m. We also prove that |C|\geq |A|+|B|-2|S|-m if the torsion subgroup of G is cyclic. In the case S={0} this provides an advance on a conjecture of Lev.
Suppose that G is an abelian group and A is a finite subset of G containing no three-term arithmetic progressions. We show that |A+A| >> |A|(log |A|)^{1/3-ε} for all ε>0.
Let $G$ be a finite abelian group. A nonempty subset $A$ in $G$ is called a basis of order $h$ if $hA=G$; when $hA \neq G$, it is called a nonbasis of order $h$. Our interest is in all possible sizes of $hA$ when $A$ is a nonbasis of order $h$ in $G$ of maximum size; we provide the complete answer when $h=2$ or $h=3$.
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…
Let $A \subset {\mathbb Z}$ be a finite subset. We denote by $\mathcal{B}(A)$ the set of all integers $n \ge 2$ such that $|nA| > (2n-1)(|A|-1)$, where $nA=A+\cdots+A$ denotes the $n$-fold sumset of $A$. The motivation to consider $\mathcal{B}(A)$ stems from Buchweitz's discovery in 1980 that if a numerical semigroup $S \subseteq {\mathbb N}$ is a Weierstrass semigroup, then $\mathcal{B}({\mathbb N} \setminus S) = \emptyset$. By constructing instances where this condition fails, Buchweitz disproved a longstanding conjecture by Hurwitz (1893). In this paper, we prove that for any numerical semi…
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 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 $\mathbb{Z}$.
Let G be any additive abelian group with cyclic torsion subgroup, and let A, B and C be finite subsets of G with cardinality n>0. We show that there is a numbering {a_i}_{i=1}^n of the elements of A, a numbering {b_i}_{i=1}^n of the elements of B and a numbering {c_i}_{i=1}^n of the elements of C, such that all the sums a_i+b_i+c_i (i=1,...,n) are distinct. Consequently, each subcube of the Latin cube formed by the Cayley addition table of Z/NZ contains a Latin transversal. This additive theorem can be further extended via restricted sumsets in a field.
In the present paper we introduce the property AA of a subsemigroup of the endomorphism semigroup of an abelian variety, which holds for semigroup of endomorphisms of an abelian variety defined over a number field, and show that the orbit of any cycle under a semigroup with property AA in the Chow group $\otimes\Q$ has finite dimensional span.
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…
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…
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.
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…
If $A$ is a nonempty subset of an additive group $G$, then the $h$-fold sumset is \[ hA = \{x_1 + \cdots + x_h : x_i \in A_i \text{ for } i=1,2,\ldots, h\}. \] The set $A$ is an $(r,\ell)$-approximate group in $G$ if $A$ is a nonempty subset of a group $G$ and there exists a subset $X$ of $G$ such that $|X| \leq \ell$ and $rA \subseteq XA$. We do not assume that $A$ contains the identity, nor that $A$ is symmetric, nor that $A$ is finite. The set $A$ is an asymptotic $(r,\ell)$-approximate group if the sumset $hA$ is an $(r,\ell)$-approximate group for all sufficiently large $h$. It is proved …
Let G be an additive abelian group whose finite subgroups are all cyclic. Let A_1,...,A_n (n>1) be finite subsets of G with cardinality k>0, and let b_1,...,b_n be pairwise distinct elements of G with odd order. We show that for every positive integer m\leq (k-1)/(n-1) there are more than (k-1)n-(m+1)n(n-1)/2 sets {a_1,...,a_n} such that a_1\in A_1,..., a_n\in A_n, and both a_i\not=a_j and ma_i+b_i\not=ma_j+b_j (or both ma_i\not=ma_j and a_i+b_i\not=a_j+b_j) for all 1\leq i<j\leq n. This extends a recent result of Dasgupta, Károlyi, Serra and Szegedy on Snevily's conjecture. Actually stronger …
Let $G$ be a $σ$-finite abelian group, i.e. $G=\bigcup_{n\geq 1} G_n$ where $(G_n)_{n\geq 1}$ is a non decreasing sequence of finite subgroups. For any $A\subset G$, let $\underline{\mathrm{d}}(A):=\liminf_{n\to\infty}\frac{|A\cap G_n|}{|G_n|}$ be its lower asymptotic density. We show that for any subsets $A$ and $B$ of $G$, whenever $\underline{\mathrm{d}}(A+B)<\underline{\mathrm{d}}(A)+\underline{\mathrm{d}}(B)$, the sumset $A+B$ must be periodic, that is, a union of translates of a subgroup $H\leq G$ of finite index. This is exactly analogous to Kneser's theorem regarding the density of inf…
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…
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…
Let X = S \oplus G, where S is a countable abelian semigroup and G is a countably infinite abelian group such that {2g : g in G} is infinite. Let pi: X \to G be the projection map defined by pi(s,g) = g for all x =(s,g) in X. Let f:X \to N_0 cup infty be any map such that the set pi(f^{-1}(0)) is a finite subset of G. Then there exists a set B contained in X such that r_B(x) = f(x) for all x in X, where the representation function r_B(x) counts the number of sets {x',x''} contained in B such that x' \neq x'' and x'+x''=x. In particular, every function f from the integers Z into N_0 \cup infty …
For a finite abelian group $G$ and a positive integer $h$, the unrestricted (resp.~restricted) $h$-critical number $χ(G,h)$ (resp.~$χ\hat{\;}(G,h)$) of $G$ is defined to be the minimum value of $m$, if exists, for which the $h$-fold unrestricted (resp.~restricted) sumset of every $m$-subset of $G$ equals $G$ itself. Here we determine $χ(G,h)$ for all $G$ and $h$; and prove several results for $χ\hat{\;}(G,h)$, including the cases of any $G$ and $h = 2$, any $G$ and large $h$, and any $h$ for the cyclic group $\mathbb{Z}_n$ of even order. We also provide a lower bound for $χ\hat{\;}(\mathbb{Z}_…
We consider in this paper the set of transfer times between two measurable subsets of positive measures in an ergodic probability measure-preserving system of a countable abelian group. If the lower asymptotic density of the transfer times is small, then we prove this set must be either periodic or Sturmian. Our results can be viewed as ergodic-theoretical extensions of some classical sumset theorems in compact abelian groups due to Kneser. Our proofs are based on a correspondence principle for action sets which was developed previously by the first two authors.
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.
Let $\mathbb G = (G, +)$ be a group (either abelian or not). Given $X, Y \subseteq G$, we denote by $\langle Y \rangle$ the subsemigroup of $\mathbb G$ generated by $Y$, and we set $$γ(Y) := \sup_{y_0 \in Y} \inf_{y_0 \ne y \in Y} {\rm ord}(y - y_0)$$ if $|Y| \ge 2$ and $γ(Y) := |Y|$ otherwise. We prove that if $\langle Y \rangle$ is commutative, $Y$ is non-empty, and $X+2Y \neq X + Y + y$ for some $y \in Y$, then $$ |X+Y| \ge |X|+\min(γ(Y), |Y| - 1). $$ Actually, this is obtained from a more general result, which improves on previous work of the author on sumsets in cancellative semigroups, a…
We address the "sums of dilates problem" by looking for non-trivial lower bounds on sumsets of the form $k \cdot X + l \cdot X$, where $k$ and $l$ are non-zero integers and $X$ is a subset of a possibly non-abelian group $G$ (written additively). In particular, we investigate the extension of some results so far known only for the integers to the context of torsion-free or linearly orderable groups, either abelian or not.
For a finite abelian group $G$, a nonempty subset $A$ of $G$, and a positive integer $h$, we let $hA$ denote the $h$-fold sumset of $A$; that is, $hA$ is the collection of sums of $h$ not-necessarily-distinct elements of $A$. Furthermore, for a positive integer $s$, we set $[0,s] A=\cup_{h=0}^s h A$. We say that $A$ is a generating set of $G$ if there is a positive integer $s$ for which $[0,s] A=G$. The $h$-critical number $χ(G,h)$ of $G$ is defined as the smallest positive integer $m$ for which $hA=G$ holds for every $m$-subset $A$ of $G$; similarly, $χ(G,[0,s])$ is the smallest positive inte…
