Small doubling in cyclic groups

We show that if G is a finite group and A is a subset of G with no non-trivial solutions to xz=yy then |A| < |G|/(log log |G|)^c.

If a soluble group $G$ contains two finitely generated abelian subgroups $A,B$ such that the number of double cosets $AgB$ is finite, then $G$ is shown to be virtually polycyclic.

We prove that every set $A\subset\mathbb{Z}/p\mathbb{Z}$ with $\mathbb{E}_x\min(1_A*1_A(x),t)\le(2+\delta)t\mathbb{E}_x 1_A(a)$ is very close to an arithmetic progression. Here $p$ stands for a large prime and $\delta,t$ are small real numbers. This shows that the Vosper theorem is stable in the case of a single set.

We prove that there is a small but fixed positive integer e such that for every prime larger than a fixed integer, every subset S of the integers modulo p which satisfies |2S|<(2+e)|S| and 2(|2S|)-2|S|+2 < p is contained in an arithmetic progression of length |2S|-|S|+1. This is the first result of this nature which places no unnecessary restrictions on the size of S.

We prove Bogolyubov-Ruzsa-type results for finite subsets of groups with small tripling, $|A^3|\leq O(|A|)$, or small alternation, $|AA^{\text{-}1} A|\leq O(|A|)$. As applications, we obtain a qualitative analog of Bogolyubov's Lemma for dense sets in arbitrary finite groups, as well as a quantitative arithmetic regularity lemma for sets of bounded VC-dimension in finite groups of bounded exponent. The latter result generalizes the abelian case, due to Alon, Fox, and Zhao, an...

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 characterizatio...

We investigate the structure of finite sets $A \subseteq \Z$ where $|A+A|$ is large. We present a combinatorial construction that serves as a counterexample to natural conjectures in the pursuit of an "anti-Freiman" theory in additive combinatorics. In particular, we answer a question along these lines posed by O'Bryant. Our construction also answers several questions about the nature of finite unions of $B_2[g]$ and $B^\circ_2[g]$ sets, and enables us to construct a $\Lambda...

For $p$ being a large prime number, and $A \subset \mathbb{F}_p$ we prove the following: $(i)$ If $A(A+A)$ does not cover all nonzero residues in $\mathbb{F}_p$, then $|A| < p/8 + o(p)$. $(ii)$ If $A$ is both sum-free and satisfies $A = A^*$, then $|A| < p/9 + o(p)$. $(iii)$ If $|A| \gg \frac{\log\log{p}}{\sqrt{\log{p}}}p$, then $|A + A^*| \geqslant (1 - o(1))\min(2\sqrt{|A|p}, p)$. Here the constants $1/8$, $1/9$, and $2$ are the best possible. The proof involves \em...

A famous result of Freiman describes the structure of finite sets A of integers with small doubling property. If |A + A| <= K|A| then A is contained within a multidimensional arithmetic progression of dimension d(K) and size f(K)|A|. Here we prove an analogous statement valid for subsets of an arbitrary abelian group.

For a subset $A$ of an abelian group $G$, given its size $|A|$, its doubling $\kappa=|A+A|/|A|$, and a parameter $s$ which is small compared to $|A|$, we study the size of the largest sumset $A+A'$ that can be guaranteed for a subset $A'$ of $A$ of size at most $s$. We show that a subset $A'\subseteq A$ of size at most $s$ can be found so that $|A+A'| = \Omega(\min(\kappa^{1/3},s)|A|)$. Thus a sumset significantly larger than the Cauchy--Davenport bound can be guaranteed by a...