Sum-product phenomena in F_p: a brief introduction

We introduce a method to estimate sums of oscillating functions on finite abelian groups over intervals or (generalized) arithmetic progressions, when the size of the interval is such that the completing techniques of Fourier analysis are barely insufficient to obtain non-trivial results. In particular, we prove various estimates for exponential sums over intervals in finite fields and related sums just below the Polya-Vinogradov range, and derive applications to equidistribu...

These notes are devoted to the theory of exponential sums over finite fields. The first chapter recalls some of the number-theoretic interest of such sums. The second chapter discusses the $L$-functions attached to such sums, the "Weil conjectures" for these $L$-functions as established by Deligne, andthe consequences for the exponential sums themselves. The third chapter is devoted to the cohomological interpretation of exponential sums and of their associated $L$-functions....

We prove, using combinatorics and Kloosterman sum technology that if $A \subset {\Bbb F}_q$, a finite field with $q$ elements, and $q^{{1/2}} \lesssim |A| \lesssim q^{{7/10}}$, then $\max \{|A+A|, |A \cdot A|\} \gtrsim \frac{{|A|}^{{3/2}}}{q^{{1/4}}$.

We give nontrivial bounds for the bilinear sums $$ \sum_{u = 1}^{U} \sum_{v=1}^V \alpha_u \beta_v \mathbf{\,e}_p(u/f(v)) $$ where $\mathbf{\,e}_p(z)$ is a nontrivial additive character of the prime finite field ${\mathbb F}_p$ of $p$ elements, with integers $U$, $V$, a polynomial $f\in {\mathbb F}_p[X] $ and some complex weights $\{\alpha_u\}$, $\{\beta_v\}$. In particular, for $f(X)=aX+b$ we obtain new bounds of bilinear sums with Kloosterman fractions. We also obtain new bo...

Let $A$ be a multiplicative subgroup of $\mathbb Z_p^*$. Define the $k$-fold sumset of $A$ to be $kA=\{x_1+\dots+x_k:x_i \in A,1\leq i\leq k\}$. We show that $6A\supseteq \mathbb Z_p^*$ for $|A| > p^{\frac {11}{23} +\epsilon}$. In addition, we extend a result of Shkredov to show that $|2A|\gg |A|^{\frac 85-\epsilon}$ for $|A|\ll p^{\frac 59}$.

This is a survey of methods developed in the last few years to prove results on growth in non-commutative groups. These techniques have their roots in both additive combinatorics and group theory, as well as other fields. We discuss linear algebraic groups, with SL_2(Z/pZ) as the basic example, as well as permutation groups. The emphasis lies on the ideas behind the methods.

We use Sidon sets to present an elementary method to study some combinatorial problems in finite fields, such as sum product estimates, solubility of some equations and distribution of sequences in small intervals. We obtain classic and more recent results avoiding the use of exponential sums, the usual tool to deal with these problems.

Let $\E$ be an ordinary elliptic curve over a finite field $\F_{q}$ of $q$ elements and $x(Q)$ denote the $x$-coordinate of a point $Q = (x(Q),y(Q))$ on $\E$. Given an $\F_q$-rational point $P$ of order $T$, we show that for any subsets $\cA, \cB$ of the unit group of the residue ring modulo $T$, at least one of the sets $$ \{x(aP) + x(bP) : a \in \cA, b \in \cB\} \quad\text{and}\quad \{x(abP) : a \in \cA, b \in \cB\} $$ is large. This question is motivated by a series of rec...

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 ...

We obtain new bounds on short Weil sums over small multiplicative subgroups of prime finite fields which remain nontrivial in the range the classical Weil bound is already trivial. The method we use is a blend of techniques coming from algebraic geometry and additive combinatorics.