Erdos distance problem in vector spaces over finite fields

Let $\phi(x, y)\colon \mathbb{R}^d\times \mathbb{R}^d\to \mathbb{R}$ be a function. We say $\phi$ is a Mattila--Sj\"{o}lin type function of index $\gamma$ if $\gamma$ is the smallest number satisfying the property that for any compact set $E\subset \mathbb{R}^d$, $\phi(E, E)$ has a non-empty interior whenever $\dim_H(E)>\gamma$. The usual distance function, $\phi(x, y)=|x-y|$, is conjectured to be a Mattila--Sj\"{o}lin type function of index $\frac{d}{2}$. In the setting of f...

Let $\mathbb{F}_q$ denote the finite field of $q$ elements. For $E \subset \mathbb{F}_q^d$, denote the distance set $\Delta(E)= \{\|x-y\|^2:=(x_1-y_1)^2+ \cdots + (x_d-y_d)^2 : (x,y)\in E^2 \}$. The Erdos quotient set problem was introduced in \cite{Iosevich_2019} where it was shown that for even $d\geq2$ that if $|E| \subset \mathbb{F}_q^2$ such that $|E| >> q^{d/2}$, then $\frac{\Delta(E)}{\Delta(E)}:= \{\frac{s}{t}:s,t \in \Delta(E), t\not=0\} =\mathbb{F}_q^d$. The proof...

We explore variants of Erd\H os' unit distance problem concerning dot products between successive pairs of points chosen from a large finite subset of either $\mathbb F_q^d$ or $\mathbb Z_q^d,$ where $q$ is a power of an odd prime. Specifically, given a large finite set of points $E$, and a sequence of elements of the base field (or ring) $(\alpha_1,\ldots,\alpha_k)$, we give conditions guaranteeing the expected number of $(k+1)$-tuples of distinct points $(x_1,\dots, x_{k+1}...

The first purpose of this paper is to provide new finite field extension theorems for paraboloids and spheres. By using the unusual good Fourier transform of the zero sphere in some specific dimensions, which has been discovered recently in the work of Iosevich, Lee, Shen, and the first and second listed authors (2018), we provide a new $L^2\to L^r$ extension estimate for paraboloids in dimensions $d=4k+3$ and $q\equiv 3\mod 4$, which improves significantly the recent exponen...

Given $E \subset \mathbb{F}_q^d$, we show that certain configurations occur frequently when $E$ is of sufficiently large cardinality. Specifically, we show that we achieve the statistically number of $k$-stars $\displaystyle\left|\left\{(x, x^1, \dots, x^k) \in E^{k+1} : \| x - x^i \| = t_i \right\}\right|$ when is $|E| \gg_k q^{\frac{d+1}{2}}$. This result can be thought of as a natural generalization of the Erd\H os-Falconer distance problem. Our result improves on a pinned...

For $ E\subset \mathbb{F}_q^d$, let $\Delta(E)$ denote the distance set determined by pairs of points in $E$. By using additive energies of sets on a paraboloid, Koh, Pham, Shen, and Vinh (2020) proved that if $E,F\subset \mathbb{F}_q^d $ are subsets with $|E||F|\gg q^{d+\frac{1}{3}}$ then $|\Delta(E)+\Delta(F)|> q/2$. They also proved that the threshold $q^{d+\frac{1}{3}}$ is sharp when $|E|=|F|$. In this paper, we provide an improvement of this result in the unbalanced case...

We study the $k$-resultant modulus set problem in the $d$-dimensional vector space $\mathbb F_q^d$ over the finite field $\mathbb F_q$ with $q$ elements. Given $E\subset \mathbb F_q^d$ and an integer $k\ge 2$, the $k$-resultant modulus set, denoted by $\Delta_k(E)$, is defined as $$ \Delta_k(E)=\{\|x^1\pm x^2 \pm \cdots \pm x^k\|\in \mathbb F_q: x^j\in E, ~j=1,2,\ldots, k\},$$ where $\|\alpha\|=\alpha_1^2+\cdots+ \alpha_d^2$ for $\alpha=(\alpha_1, \ldots, \alpha_d) \in \mathb...

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...

For $E \subset {\Bbb F}_q^d$, $d \ge 2$, where ${\Bbb F}_q$ is the finite field with $q$ elements, we consider the distance graph ${\mathcal G}^{dist}_t(E)$, $t \not=0$, where the vertices are the elements of $E$, and two vertices $x$, $y$ are connected by an edge if $||x-y|| \equiv {(x_1-y_1)}^2+\dots+{(x_d-y_d)}^2=t$. We prove that if $|E| \ge C_k q^{\frac{d+2}{2}}$, then ${\mathcal G}^{dist}_t(E)$ contains a statistically correct number of cycles of length $k$. We are also...

In this paper we prove some results on sum-product estimates over arbitrary finite fields. More precisely, we show that for sufficiently small sets $A\subset \mathbb{F}_q$ we have \[|(A-A)^2+(A-A)^2|\gg |A|^{1+\frac{1}{21}}.\] This can be viewed as the Erd\H{o}s distinct distances problem for Cartesian product sets over arbitrary finite fields. We also prove that \[\max\{|A+A|, |A^2+A^2|\}\gg |A|^{1+\frac{1}{42}}, ~|A+A^2|\gg |A|^{1+\frac{1}{84}}.\]