24 page survey article, submitted to Surveys in Combinatorics 2005. There are two supplementary documents, containing some proofs related to this article, on the author's webpage
The study of many problems in additive combinatorics, such as Szemerédi's theorem on arithmetic progressions, is made easier by first studying models for the problem in F_p^n for some fixed small prime p. We give a number of examples of finite field models of this type, which allows us to introduce some of the central ideas in additive combinatorics relatively cleanly. We also give an indication of how the intuition gained from the study of finite field models can be helpful for addressing the original questions.
In this paper we show examples for applications of the Bombieri-Lang conjecture in additive combinatorics, giving bounds on the cardinality of sumsets of squares and higher powers of integers. Using similar methods we give bounds on the sum-product problem for matchings.
We study the distribution of singular and unimodular matrices in sumsets in matrix rings over finite fields. We apply these results to estimate the largest prime divisor of the determinants in sumsets in matrix rings over the integers.
We embark on a tour that takes us through four closely related topics: the dual concepts of independence and spanning in finite abelian groups and the analogous dual concepts of designs and distance sets on spheres. We review some of the main known results in each area, mention several open questions, and discuss some connections among these four interesting topics.
This text contains over three hundred specific open questions on various topics in additive combinatorics, each placed in context by reviewing all relevant results. While the primary purpose is to provide an ample supply of problems for student research, it is hopefully also useful for a wider audience. It is the author's intention to keep the material current, thus all feedback and updates are greatly appreciated.
We study two conjectures in additive combinatorics. The first is the polynomial Freiman-Ruzsa conjecture, which relates to the structure of sets with small doubling. The second is the inverse Gowers conjecture for $U^3$, which relates to functions which locally look like quadratics. In both cases a weak form, with exponential decay of parameters is known, and a strong form with only a polynomial loss of parameters is conjectured. Our main result is that the two conjectures are in fact equivalent.
In this paper we investigate some new problems in additive combinatorics. Our problems mainly involve permutations (or circular permutations) $n$ distinct numbers (or elements of an additive abelian group) $a_1,\ldots,a_n$ with adjacent sums $a_i+a_{i+1}$ (or differences $a_i-a_{i+1}$) pairwise distinct. For an odd prime power $q=2n+1>13$ with $q\not=25$, we show that there is a circular permutation $(a_1,\ldots,a_n)$ of the elements of $S=\{a^2:\ a\in\mathbb F_q\setminus\{0\}\}$ such that $\{a_1+a_2,\ldots,a_{n-1}+a_n,a_n+a_1\}=S$, where $\mathbb F_q$ denotes the field of order $q$. For any f…
In this survey paper we discuss some recent results and related open questions in additive combinatorics, in particular, questions about sumsets in finite abelian groups.
We give bounds on the number of distinct differences $N_a-a$ as $a$ varies over all elements of a given finite set $A$, and $N_a$ is a nearest neighbour to $a$.
The investigation of the pair correlation statistics of sequences was initially motivated by questions concerning quasi-energy-spectra of quantum systems. However, the subject has been developed far beyond its roots in mathematical physics, and many challenging number-theoretic questions on the distribution of the pair correlations of certain sequences are still open. We give a short introduction into the subject, recall some known results and open problems, and in particular explain the recently established connection between the distribution of pair correlations of sequences on the torus and…
We study higher moments of convolutions of the characteristic function of a set, which generalize a classical notion of the additive energy. Such quantities appear in many problems of additive combinatorics as well as in number theory. In our investigation we use different approaches including basic combinatorics, Fourier analysis and eigenvalues method to establish basic properties of higher energies. We provide also a sequence of applications of higher energies additive combinatorics.
We present proofs of the basic isopermetric structure theory, obtaining some new simplified proofs. As an application, we obtain simple descriptions for subsets $S$ of an abelian group with $|kS|\le k|S|-k+1$ or $|kS-rS|- (k+r)|S|,$ where $1\le r \le k.$ These results may be applied to several questions in Combinatorics and Additive Combinatorics (Frobenius Problem, Waring's problem in finite fields and Cayley graphs with a big diameter, ....).
Recently, additive combinatorics has blossomed into a vibrant area in mathematical sciences. But it seems to be a difficult area to define - perhaps because of a blend of ideas and techniques from several seemingly unrelated contexts which are used there. One might say that additive combinatorics is a branch of mathematics concerning the study of combinatorial properties of algebraic objects, for instance, Abelian groups, rings, or fields. This emerging field has seen tremendous advances over the last few years, and has recently become a focus of attention among both mathematicians and compute…
Shortly after Szemerédi's proof that a set of positive upper density contains arbitrarily long arithmetic progressions, Furstenberg gave a new proof of this theorem using ergodic theory. This gave rise to the field of ergodic Ramsey Theory, in which problems motivated by additive combinatorics are proven using ergodic theory. Ergodic Ramsey Theory has since produced combinatorial results, some of which have yet to be obtained by other means, and has also given a deeper understanding of the structure of measure preserving systems. We outline the ergodic theory background needed to understand th…
We say that a set $S$ is additively decomposed into two sets $A$ and $B$, if $S = \{a+b : a\in A, \ b \in B\}$. Here we study additively decompositions of multiplicative subgroups of finite fields. In particular, we give some improvements and generalisations of results of C. Dartyge and A. Sarkozy on additive decompositions of quadratic residues and primitive roots modulo $p$. We use some new tools such the Karatsuba bound of double character sums and some results from additive combinatorics.
Let $\tilde{f}(X)\in\mathbb{Z}[X]$ be a degree-$n$ polynomial such that $f(X):=\tilde{f}(X)\bmod p$ factorizes into $n$ distinct linear factors over $\mathbb{F}_p$. We study the problem of deterministically factoring $f(X)$ over $\mathbb{F}_p$ given $\tilde{f}(X)$. Under the generalized Riemann hypothesis (GRH), we give an improved deterministic algorithm that computes the complete factorization of $f(X)$ in the case that the Galois group of $\tilde{f}(X)$ is (permutation isomorphic to) a linear group $G\leq \mathrm{GL}(V)$ on the set $S$ of roots of $\tilde{f}(X)$, where $V$ is a finite-dimen…
Using various results from extremal set theory (interpreted in the language of additive combinatorics), we prove an asyptotically sharp version of Freiman's theorem in F_2^n: if A in F_2^n is a set for which |A + A| <= K|A| then A is contained in a subspace of size 2^{2K + O(\sqrt{K}\log K)}|A|; except for the O(\sqrt{K} \log K) error, this is best possible. If in addition we assume that A is a downset, then we can also cover A by O(K^{46}) translates of a coordinate subspace of size at most |A|, thereby verifying the so-called polynomial Freiman-Ruzsa conjecture in this case. A common theme i…
We obtain a new bound on certain double sums of multiplicative characters improving the range of several previous results. This improvement comes from new bounds on the number of collinear triples in finite fields, which is a classical object of study of additive combinatorics.
We explore a paradigm which ties together seemingly disparate areas in number theory, additive combinatorics, and geometric combinatorics including the classical Waring problem, the Furstenberg-Sárközy theorem on squares in sets of integers with positive density, and the study of triangles (also called $2$-simplices) in finite fields. Among other results we show that if $\mathbb{F}_q$ is the finite field of odd order $q$, then every matrix in $Mat_d(\mathbb{F}_q), d \geq 2$ is the sum of a certain (finite) number of orthogonal matrices, this number depending only on $d$, the size of the matrix…
This paper surveys and develops links between polynomial invariants of finite groups, factorization theory of Krull domains, and product-one sequences over finite groups. The goal is to gain a better understanding of the multiplicative ideal theory of invariant rings, and connections between the Noether number and the Davenport constants of finite groups.
We study the dynamics of maps arising from the composition of two non-commuting involution on a K3 surface. These maps are a particular example of reversible maps, i.e., maps with a time reversing symmetry. The combinatorics of the cycle distribution of two non-commuting involutions on a finite phase space was studied by Roberts and Vivaldi. We show that the dynamical systems of these K3 surfaces satisfy the hypotheses of their results, providing a description of the cycle distribution of the rational points over finite fields. Furthermore, we extend the involutions to include the case where t…
We generalize Burgess' results on partial Gaussian sums to arbitrary finite fields. The main ingredients are the classical method of amplification, two deep results on multiplicative energy for subsets in finite fields which are obtained respectively by the tools from additive combinatorics and geometry of numbers, and a technique of Chamizo for treating the difficulty caused by additive character. Our results include the recent works on character sums in finite fields by M.-C. Chang and S. V. Konyagin.
Arithmetic combinatorics is often concerned with the problem of bounding the behaviour of arbitrary finite sets in a group or ring with respect to arithmetic operations such as addition or multiplication. Similarly, combinatorial geometry is often concerned with the problem of bounding the behaviour of arbitrary finite collections of geometric objects such as points, lines, or circles with respect to geometric operations such as incidence or distance. Given the presence of arbitrary finite sets in these problems, the methods used to attack these problems have primarily been combinatorial in na…
The Weil representation of the symplectic group associated to a finite abelian group of odd order is shown to have a multiplicity-free decomposition. When the abelian group is p-primary, the irreducible representations occurring in the Weil representation are parametrized by a partially ordered set which is independent of p. As p varies, the dimension of the irreducible representation corresponding to each parameter is shown to be a polynomial in p which is calculated explicitly. The commuting algebra of the Weil representation has a basis indexed by another partially ordered set which is inde…
We survey some of the ideas behind the recent developments in additive number theory, combinatorics and ergodic theory leading to the proof of Hardy- Littlewood type estimates for the number of prime solutions to systems of linear equations of finite complexity.
Energy bounds for modular roots and their applications
University of New South Wales（新南威尔士大学）；London Institute for Mathematical Sciences（伦敦数学科学研究所）；University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign（伊利诺伊大学厄巴纳-香槟分校）；Simon Stoilow Institute of Mathematics of the Romanian Academy（罗马尼亚科学院西蒙·斯托伊洛数学研究所）
We say the sets of nonnegative integers A and B are additive complements if their sum contains all sufficiently large integers. In this paper we prove a conjecture of Chen and Fang about additive complement of a finite set.
In this paper we introduce the additive analogue of the index of a polynomial over finite fields. We study several problems in the theory of polynomials over finite fields in terms of their additive indices, such as value set sizes, bounds on multiplicative character sums, and characterizations of permutation polynomials.
