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.
We prove results about the L^p-almost-periodicity of convolutions. One of these follows from a simple but rather general lemma about approximating a sum of functions in L^p, and gives a very short proof of a theorem of Green that if A and B are subsets of {1,...,N} of sizes alpha N and beta N then A+B contains an arithmetic progression of length at least about exp(c (alpha beta log N)^{1/2}). Another almost-periodicity result improves this bound for densities decreasing with N: we show that under the above hypotheses the sumset A+B contains an arithmetic progression of length at least about ex…
In this paper we give a very elementary proof that if A and B are subsets of {1,2,...,N}, each having at least 5N^{1 - (4(k-1))^{-1}} elements, then the sumset A+B has a k-term arithmetic progression.
Let $A, B\subseteq \mathbb{Z}$ be finite, nonempty subsets with $\min A=\min B=0$, and let $$δ(A,B)={\begin{array}{ll} 1 & \hbox{if} A\subseteq B, 0 & \hbox{otherwise.} If $\max B\leq \max A\leq |A|+|B|-3$ and \label{one}|A+B|\leq |A|+2|B|-3-δ(A,B), then we show $A+B$ contains an arithmetic progression with difference 1 and length $|A|+|B|-1$. As a corollary, if \eqref{one} holds, $\max(B)\leq \max(A)$ and either $\gcd(A)=1$ or else $\gcd(A+B)=1$ and $|A+B|\leq 2|A|+|B|-3$, then $A+B$ contains an arithmetic progression with difference 1 and length $|A|+|B|-1$.
Suppose that A is a subset of the integers {1,...,N} of density a. We provide a new proof of a result of Green which shows that A+A contains an arithmetic progression of length exp(ca(log N)^{1/2}) for some absolute c>0. Furthermore we improve the length of progression guaranteed in higher sumsets; for example we show that A+A+A contains a progression of length roughly N^{ca} improving on the previous best of N^{ca^{2+ε}}.
For a set $A$ of integers, the sumset $lA =A+...+A$ consists of those numbers which can be represented as a sum of $l$ elements of $A$ $$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, …
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.
Rudin conjectured that there are never more than c N^(1/2) squares in an arithmetic progression of length N. Motivated by this surprisingly difficult problem we formulate more than twenty conjectures in harmonic analysis, analytic number theory, arithmetic geometry, discrete geometry and additive combinatorics (some old and some new) which each, if true, would shed light on Rudin's conjecture.
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…
Our main result states that when A, B, C are subsets of Z/NZ of respective densities α,β,γ, the sumset A + B + C contains an arithmetic progression of length at least e^{c(\log N)^c} for densities α> (\log N)^{-2 + ε} and β,γ> e^{-c(\log N)^c}, where c depends on ε. Previous results of this type required one set to have density at least (\log N)^{-1 + o(1)}. Our argument relies on the method of Croot, Laba and Sisask to establish a similar estimate for the sumset A + B and on the recent advances on Roth's theorem by Sanders. We also obtain new estimates for the analogous problem in the primes …
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$.
We improve the quantitative estimate for Roth's theorem on three-term arithmetic progressions, showing that if $A\subset\{1,\ldots,N\}$ contains no non-trivial three-term arithmetic progressions then $\lvert A\rvert\ll N(\log\log N)^4/\log N$. By the same method we also improve the bounds in the analogous problem over $\mathbb{F}_q[t]$ and for the problem of finding long arithmetic progressions in a sumset.
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.…
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 $h\geq 2$ and $A=\{a_0,a_1,\ldots,a_{k-1}\}$ be a finite set of integers. It is well-known that $\left|hA\right|=hk-h+1$ if and only if $A$ is a $k$-term arithmetic progression. In this paper, we give some nontrivial inverse results of the sets $A$ with some extrema the cardinalities of $hA$.
We show that if $A\subset \{1,\ldots,N\}$ contains no non-trivial three-term arithmetic progressions then $\lvert A\rvert \ll N/(\log N)^{1+c}$ for some absolute constant $c>0$. In particular, this proves the first non-trivial case of a conjecture of Erdős on arithmetic progressions.
In this paper we prove: If 0 < d < 1, and p is a sufficiently large prime, then if S is a subset of Z/pZ having the least number of three-term arithmetic progressions among all subsets of Z/pZ having at least dp elements, then S has an arithmetic progression of length at least log^{1/4+o(1)} x.
We prove that if one has k non-intersecting arithmetic progressions of integers, with common differences 2 <= q_1,...,q_k <= x, then k < x exp((-1/6 + o(1)) sqrt(log x loglog x)). This improves a result of Szemeredi and Erdos.
We construct subsets of {1,...,N} of cardinality at least N exp(-C(log N)^{1/(k+1)}) which do not contain arithmetic progressions of length 2^k+1. This extends a result of Behrend (1946) concerning sets which do not contain aritmetic progressions of length 3.
We extend two well-known results in additive number theory, Sárközy's theorem on square differences in dense sets and a theorem of Green on long arithmetic progressions in sumsets, to subsets of random sets of asymptotic density 0. Our proofs rely on a restriction-type Fourier analytic argument of Green and Green-Tao.
We consider the problem of determining the maximum cardinality of a subset containing no arithmetic progressions of length $k$ in a given set of size $n$. It is proved that it is sufficient, in a certain sense, to consider the interval $[1,\dots, n]$. The study continues the work of Komlós, Sulyok, and Szemerédi.
We study arithmetic progressions in primes with common differences as small as possible. Tao and Ziegler showed that, for any $k \geq 3$ and $N$ large, there exist non-trivial $k$-term arithmetic progressions in (any positive density subset of) the primes up to $N$ with common difference $O((\log N)^{L_k})$, for an unspecified constant $L_k$. In this work we obtain this statement with the precise value $L_k = (k-1) 2^{k-2}$. This is achieved by proving a relative version of Szemerédi's theorem for narrow progressions requiring simpler pseudorandomness hypotheses in the spirit of recent work of…
We show that the hereditary discrepancy of homogeneous arithmetic progressions is lower bounded by $n^{1/O(\log \log n)}$. This bound is tight up to the constant in the exponent. Our lower bound goes via proving an exponential lower bound on the discrepancy of set systems of subcubes of the boolean cube $\{0, 1\}^d$.
Given two sets $\cA, \cB \subseteq \F_q$ of elements of the finite field $\F_q$ of $q$ elements, we show that the productset $$ \cA\cB = \{ab | a \in \cA, b \in\cB\} $$ contains an arithmetic progression of length $k \ge 3$ provided that $k<p$, where $p$ is the characteristic of $\F_q$, and $# \cA # \cB \ge 3q^{2d-2/k}$. We also consider geometric progressions in a shifted productset $\cA\cB +h$, for $f \in \F_q$, and obtain a similar result.
For an integer $b \geqslant 2$ and a set $S\subset \{0,\cdots,b-1\}$, we define the Kempner set $\mathcal{K}(S,b)$ to be the set of all non-negative integers whose base-$b$ digital expansions contain only digits from $S$. These well-studied sparse sets provide a rich setting for additive number theory, and in this paper we study various questions relating to the appearance of arithmetic progressions in these sets. In particular, for all $b$ we determine exactly the maximal length of an arithmetic progression that omits a base-$b$ digit.
We show that if a finite, large enough subset A of an arbitrary abelian group satisfies the small doubling condition |A + A| < (log |A|)^{1 - epsilon} |A|, then A must contain a three-term arithmetic progression whose terms are not all equal, and A + A must contain an arithmetic progression or a coset of a subgroup, either of which of size at least exp^[ c (log |A|)^{delta} ]. This extends analogous results obtained by Sanders and, respectively, by Croot, Laba and Sisask in the case where the group is that of the integers or a finite field.
Let $H$ be a multiplicatively written monoid with identity $1_H$ (in particular, a group). We denote by $\mathcal P_{\rm fin,\times}(H)$ the monoid obtained by endowing the collection of all finite subsets of $H$ containing a unit with the operation of setwise multiplication $(X,Y) \mapsto \{xy: x \in X, y \in Y\}$; and study fundamental features of the arithmetic of this and related structures, with a focus on the submonoid, $\mathcal P_{\text{fin},1}(H)$, of $\mathcal P_{\text{fin},\times}(H)$ consisting of all finite subsets $X$ of $H$ with $1_H \in X$. Among others, we prove that $\mathcal…
We develop a theory of multiplicative functions (with values inside or on the unit circle) in arithmetic progressions analogous to the well-known theory of primes in arithmetic progressions.
Euler showed that there can be no more than three integer squares in arithmetic progression. In quadratic number fields, Xarles has shown that there can be arithmetic progressions of five squares, but not of six. Here, we prove that there are no cubic number fields which contain five squares in arithmetic progression.
We show that there exists a positive constant C such that the following holds: Given an infinite arithmetic progression A of real numbers and a sufficiently large integer n (depending on A), there needs at least Cn geometric progressions to cover the first n terms of A. A similar result is presented, with the role of arithmetic and geometric progressions reversed.
Green and Tao proved that the primes contains arbitrarily long arithmetic progressions. We show that, essentially the same proof leads to the following result: The primes in an short interval contains many arithmetic progressions of any given length.
In this paper we continue the investigations about unlike powers in arithmetic progression. We provide sharp upper bounds for the length of primitive non-constant arithmetic progressions consisting of squares/cubes and $n$-th powers.
We show that essentially the Fibonacci sequence is the unique binary recurrence which contains infinitely many three-term arithmetic progressions. A criterion for general linear recurrences having infinitely many three-term arithmetic progressions is also given.
In this paper, we improve the error term in a previous paper on an asymptotic formula for the number of squarefull numbers in an arithmetic progression.
In this paper we investigate the recent advances by Zhang, Maynard and Pintz towards Polignac's conjecture and give some new results concerning the relationship between Polignac numbers and arithmetic progressions.
We investigate the approximation to the number of primes in arithmetic progressions given by Vaughan. Instead of averaging the expected error term over all residue classes to modules in a given range, here we only consider subsets of arithmetic progressions that satisfy additional congruence conditions and provide asymptotic approximations.
We prove a result on the distribution of the general divisor functions in arithmetic progressions to smooth moduli which exceed the square root of the length.
We prove that if $A\subseteq \{1,\dots,N\}$ does not contain any non-trivial three-term arithmetic progression, then $$|A|\ll \frac{(\log\log N)^{3+o(1)}}{\log N}N\,.$$
We implement the Maynard-Tao method of detecting primes in tuples to investigate small gaps between primes in arithmetic progressions, with bounds that are uniform over a range of moduli.
Let $γ<1<c$ and $19(c-1)+171(1-γ)<9$. In this paper, we establish an asymptotic formula for exponential sums over Piatetski-Shapiro primes $p=[n^{1/γ}]$ in arithmetic progressions.
In this paper we deal with composite rational functions having zeros and poles forming consecutive elements of an arithmetic progression. We also correct a result published earlier related to composite rational functions having a fixed number of zeros and poles.
We show that if besides the primes some other sequences (involving the Liouville function and the primes) have a common distribution level exceeding 0.7231 then for any positive even integer $h$ there are arbitrarily long arithmetic progressions of primes $p$ such that $p+h$ is also prime for each element of the progression. In case of $h=2$ this means that under some plausible unproved hypotheses about regular distribution of the primes and other sequences in arithmetic progressions we really have arbitrarily long arithmetic progressions in the sequence of twin primes.
The goal of this article is to study the discrepancy of the distribution of arithmetic sequences in arithmetic progressions. We will fix a sequence $\A=\{\a(n)\}_{n\geq 1}$ of non-negative real numbers in a certain class of arithmetic sequences. For a fixed integer $a\neq 0$, we will be interested in the behaviour of $\A$ over the arithmetic progressions $a \bmod q$, on average over $q$. Our main result is that for certain sequences of arithmetic interest, the value of $a$ has a significant influence on this distribution, even after removing the first term of the progressions.
We answer a number of questions of Erdős on the existence of arithmetic progressions in $k$-full numbers (i.e. integers with the property that every prime divisor necessarily occurs to at least the $k$-th power). Further, we deduce a variety of arithmetic constraints upon such progressions, under the assumption of the $abc$-conjecture of Masser and Oesterlé.
Let d be a squarefree integer. Does there exist four squares in arithmetic progression over Q(sqrt{d})? We shall give a partial answer to this question, depending on the value of d. In the affirmative case, we construct explicit arithmetic progressions consisting of four squares over Q(sqrt{d}).
We obtain an asymptotic formula, in the spirit of the Montgomery-Hooley refinement of the Barban-Davenport-Halberstam Theorem, for the variance associated with tuples of k-free numbers in arithmetic progressions.
I show that a trivial modification of a standard proof of the Roth's Theorem on triples in arithmetic progression would lead to the following Theorem: If A is a "large set" that is its elements are monotone increasing integers and the sum of reciprocals of its elements diverges then the sequence contains an arithmetic progression of length three.