Control and its applications in additive combinatorics

In this paper we obtain a new sum-product estimate in prime fields. In particular, we show that if $A\subseteq \mathbb{F}_p$ satisfies $|A|\le p^{64/117}$ then $$ \max\{|A\pm A|, |AA|\} \gtrsim |A|^{39/32}. $$ Our argument builds on and improves some recent results of Shakan and Shkredov which use the eigenvalue method to reduce to estimating a fourth moment energy and the additive energy $E^+(P)$ of some subset $P\subseteq A+A$. Our main novelty comes from reducing the estim...

In the paper we obtain new estimates for binary and ternary sums of multiplicative characters with additive convolutions of characteristic functions of sets, having small additive doubling. In particular, we improve a result of M.-C. Chang. The proof uses Croot-Sisask almost periodicity lemma.

Let $A$ be a subset of a finite field $F := \Z/q\Z$ for some prime $q$. If $|F|^\delta < |A| < |F|^{1-\delta}$ for some $\delta > 0$, then we prove the estimate $|A+A| + |A.A| \geq c(\delta) |A|^{1+\eps}$ for some $\eps = \eps(\delta) > 0$. This is a finite field analogue of a result of Erdos and Szemeredi. We then use this estimate to prove a Szemeredi-Trotter type theorem in finite fields, and obtain a new estimate for the Erdos distance problem in finite fields, as well as...

We show that if A is a large subset of a box in Z^d with dimensions L_1 >= L_2 >= ... >= L_d which are all reasonably large, then |A + A| > 2^{d/48}|A|. By combining this with Chang's quantitative version of Freiman's theorem, we prove a structural result about sets with small sumset. If A is a set of integers with |A + A| <= K|A|, then there is a progression P of dimension d << log K such that |A \cap P| >= \exp(-K^C)max (|A|, |P|). This is closely related to a theorem of ...

We prove a robust version of Freiman's $3k - 4$ theorem on the restricted sumset $A+_{\Gamma}B$, which applies when the doubling constant is at most $\tfrac{3+\sqrt{5}}{2}$ in general and at most $3$ in the special case when $A = -B$. As applications, we derive robust results with other types of assumptions on popular sums, and structure theorems for sets satisfying almost equalities in discrete and continuous versions of the Riesz-Sobolev inequality.

Let $\mathcal R$ be a finite valuation ring of order $q^r$ with $q$ a power of an odd prime number, and $\mathcal A$ be a set in $\mathcal R$. In this paper, we improve a recent result due to Yazici (2018) on a sum-product type problem. More precisely, we will prove that 1. If $|\mathcal A|\gg q^{r-\frac{1}{3}}$, then $$\max\left\lbrace |\mathcal A+\mathcal A|, |\mathcal A^2+\mathcal A^2|\right\rbrace \gg q^{\frac{r}{2}}|\mathcal A|^{\frac{1}{2}}.$$ 2. If $q^{r-\frac{3}{8}}...

We prove that the sumset or the productset of any finite set of real numbers, $A,$ is at least $|A|^{4/3-\epsilon},$ improving earlier bounds. Our main tool is a new upper bound on the multiplicative energy, $E(A,A).$

Given $A$ a set of $N$ positive integers, an old question in additive combinatorics asks that whether $A$ contains a sum-free subset of size at least $N/3+\omega(N)$ for some increasing unbounded function $\omega$. The question is generally attacked in the literature by considering another conjecture, which asserts that as $N\to\infty$, $\max_{x\in\mathbb{R}/\mathbb{Z}}\sum_{n\in A}({\bf 1}_{(1/3,2/3)}-1/3)(nx)\to\infty$. This conjecture, if true, would also imply that a simi...

This is the text accompanying my Bourbaki seminar on the work of Bloom and Sisask, Croot, Lev, and Pach, and Ellenberg and Gijswijt.

It is established that there exists an absolute constant $c>0$ such that for any finite set $A$ of positive real numbers $$|AA+A| \gg |A|^{\frac{3}{2}+c}.$$ On the other hand, we give an explicit construction of a finite set $A \subset \mathbb R$ such that $|AA+A|=o(|A|^2)$, disproving a conjecture of Balog.