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Cosmin Pohoata

Publications and source records attributed to Cosmin Pohoata.

54 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
arXiv2021

On the Zarankiewicz problem for graphs with bounded VC-dimension

The problem of Zarankiewicz asks for the maximum number of edges in a bipartite graph on $n$ vertices which does not contain the complete bipartite graph $K_{k,k}$ as a subgraph. A classical theorem due to Kővári, Sós, and Turán says that this number of edges is $O\left(n^{2 - 1/k}\right)$. An important variant of this problem is the analogous question in bipartite graphs with VC-dimension at most $d$, where $d$ is a fixed integer such that $k \geq d \geq 2$. A remarkable result of Fox, Pach, Sheffer, Suk, and Zahl [J. Eur. Math. Soc. (JEMS), no. 19, 1785-1810] with multiple applications in incidence geometry shows that, under this additional hypothesis, the number of edges in a bipartite graph on $n$ vertices and with no copy of $K_{k,k}$ as a subgraph must be $O\left(n^{2 - 1/d}\right)$. This theorem is sharp when $k=d=2$, because by design any $K_{2,2}$-free graph automatically has VC-dimension at most $2$, and there are well-known examples of such graphs with $Ω\left(n^{3/2}\right)$ edges. However, it turns out this phenomenon no longer carries through for any larger $d$. We show the following improved result: the maximum number of edges in bipartite graphs with no copies of $K_{k,k}$ and VC-dimension at most $d$ is $o(n^{2-1/d})$, for every $k \geq d \geq 3$.

math.CO↗
arXiv2021

Multiplicative functions that are close to their mean

We introduce a simple sieve-theoretic approach to studying partial sums of multiplicative functions which are close to their mean value. This enables us to obtain various new results as well as strengthen existing results with new proofs. As a first application, we show that for a completely multiplicative function $f : \mathbb{N} \to \{-1,1\},$ \begin{align*} \limsup_{x\to\infty}\Big|\sum_{n\leq x}μ^2(n)f(n)\Big|=\infty. \end{align*} This confirms a conjecture of Aymone concerning the discrepancy of square-free supported multiplicative functions. Secondly, we show that a completely multiplicative function $f : \mathbb{N} \to \mathbb{C}$ satisfies \begin{align*} \sum_{n\leq x}f(n)=cx+O(1) \end{align*} with $c\neq 0$ if and only if $f(p)=1$ for all but finitely many primes and $|f(p)|<1$ for the remaining primes. This answers a question of Ruzsa. For the case $c = 0,$ we show, under the additional hypothesis $$\sum_{p }\frac{1-|f(p)|}{p} < \infty,$$ that $f$ has bounded partial sums if and only if $f(p) = χ(p)p^{it}$ for some non-principal Dirichlet character $χ$ modulo $q$ and $t \in \mathbb{R}$ except on a finite set of primes that contains the primes dividing $q$, wherein $|f(p)| < 1.$ This provides progress on another problem of Ruzsa and gives a new and simpler proof of a stronger form of Chudakov's conjecture. Along the way we obtain quantitative bounds for the discrepancy of the generalized characters improving on the previous work of Borwein, Choi and Coons.

math.NT↗
arXiv2021

Zero subsums in vector spaces over finite fields

The Olson constant $\mathcal{O}L(\mathbb{F}_{p}^{d})$ represents the minimum positive integer $t$ with the property that every subset $A\subset \mathbb{F}_{p}^{d}$ of cardinality $t$ contains a nonempty subset with vanishing sum. The problem of estimating $\mathcal{O}L(\mathbb{F}_{p}^{d})$ is one of the oldest questions in additive combinatorics, with a long and interesting history even for the case $d=1$. In this paper, we prove that for any fixed $d \geq 2$ and $ε> 0$, the Olson constant of $\mathbb{F}_{p}^{d}$ satisfies the inequality $$\mathcal{O}L(\mathbb{F}_{p}^{d}) \leq (d-1+ε)p$$ for all sufficiently large primes $p$. This settles a conjecture of Hoi Nguyen and Van Vu.

math.CO↗
arXiv2021

Norm hypergraphs

We introduce a high uniformity generalization of the so-called (projective) norm graphs of Alon, Kollár, Rónyai, and Szabó, and use it to show that $$\operatorname{ex}_{d}(n,K_{s_{1},\ldots,s_{d}}^{(d)}) = Θ\left(n^{d - \frac{1}{s_{1}\ldots s_{d-1}}}\right)$$ holds for all integers $s_{1},\ldots,s_{d} \geq 2$ such that $s_{d} \geq \left((d-1)(s_{1}\ldots s_{d-1}-1)\right)!+1$. This improves upon a recent result of Ma, Yuan and Zhang, and thus settles (many) new cases of a conjecture of Mubayi.

math.CO↗
arXiv2020

Four-term progression free sets with three-term progressions in all large subsets

This paper is mainly concerned with sets which do not contain four-term arithmetic progressions, but are still very rich in three term arithmetic progressions, in the sense that all sufficiently large subsets contain at least one such progression. We prove that there exists a positive constant $c$ and a set $A \subset \mathbb F_q^n$ which does not contain a four-term arithmetic progression, with the property that for every subset $A' \subset A$ with $|A'| \geq |A|^{1-c}$, $A'$ contains a nontrivial three term arithmetic progression. We derive this from a more general quantitative Roth-type theorem in random subsets of $\mathbb{F}_{q}^{n}$, which improves a result of Kohayakawa-Luczak-Rödl/Tao-Vu. We also discuss a similar phenomenon over the integers, where we show that for all $ε>0$, and all sufficiently large $N \in \mathbb N$, there exists a four-term progression-free set $A$ of size $N$ with the property that for every subset $A' \subset A$ with $|A'| \gg \frac{1}{(\log N)^{1-ε}} \cdot N$ contains a nontrivial three term arithmetic progression. Finally, we include another application of our methods, showing that for sets in $\mathbb{F}_{q}^{n}$ or $\mathbb{Z}$ the property of "having nontrivial three-term progressions in all large subsets" is almost entirely uncorrelated with the property of "having large additive energy".

math.CO↗
arXiv2020

Sets without $k$-term progressions can have many shorter progressions

Let $f_{s,k}(n)$ be the maximum possible number of $s$-term arithmetic progressions in a sequence $a_1 s \geq 3$, we prove that $$\lim_{n \to \infty} \frac{\log f_{s,k}(n)}{\log n} = 2,$$ which answers an old question of Erdős. In fact, we prove upper and lower bounds for $f_{s,k}(n)$ which show that its growth is closely related to the bounds in Szemerédi's theorem.

math.CO↗
arXiv2019

A remark on sets with few distances in $\mathbb{R}^{d}$

A celebrated theorem due to Bannai-Bannai-Stanton says that if $A$ is a set of points in $\mathbb{R}^{d}$, which determines $s$ distinct distances, then $$|A| \leq {d+s \choose s}.$$ In this note, we give a new simple proof of this result by combining Sylvester's Law of Inertia for quadratic forms with the proof of the so-called Croot-Lev-Pach Lemma from additive combinatorics.

math.CO↗
arXiv2019

Expanding polynomials on sets with few products

In this note, we prove that if $A$ is a finite set of real numbers such that $|AA| = K|A|$, then for every polynomial $f \in \mathbb{R}[x,y]$ we have that $|f(A,A)| = Ω_{K,\operatorname{deg} f}(|A|^2)$, unless $f$ is of the form $f(x,y) = g(M(x,y))$ for some monomial $M$ and some univariate polynomial $g$.

math.CO↗
arXiv2018

On subsets of the hypercube with prescribed Hamming distances

A celebrated theorem of Kleitman in extremal combinatorics states that a collection of binary vectors in $\{0, 1\}^n$ with diameter $d$ has cardinality at most that of a Hamming ball of radius $d/2$. In this paper, we give an algebraic proof of Kleitman's Theorem, by carefully choosing a pseudo-adjacency matrix for certain Hamming graphs, and applying the Cvetković bound on independence numbers. This method also allows us to prove several extensions and generalizations of Kleitman's Theorem to other allowed distance sets, in particular blocks of consecutive integers that do not necessarily grow linearly with $n$. We also improve on a theorem of Alon about subsets of $\mathbb{F}_{p}^{n}$ whose difference set does not intersect $\left\{0,1\right\}^{n}$ nontrivially.

math.CO↗
arXiv2018

Local Properties via Color Energy Graphs and Forbidden Configurations

The local properties problem of Erdős and Shelah generalizes many Ramsey problems and some distinct distances problems. In this work, we derive a variety of new bounds for the local properties problem and its variants. We do this by continuing to develop the color energy technique --- a variant of the concept of additive energy from Additive Combinatorics. In particular, we generalize the concept of color energy to higher color energies, and combine these with Extremal Graph Theory results about graphs with no cycles or subdivisions of size $k$.

math.CO↗
arXiv2018

Local Properties in Colored Graphs, Distinct Distances, and Difference Sets

We study Extremal Combinatorics problems where local properties are used to derive global properties. That is, we consider a given configuration where every small piece of the configuration satisfies some restriction, and use this local property to derive global properties of the entire configuration. We study one such Ramsey problem of Erdős and Shelah, where the configurations are complete graphs with colored edges and every small induced subgraph contains many distinct colors. Our bounds for this Ramsey problem show that the known probabilistic construction is tight in various cases. We study one Discrete Geometry variant, also by Erdős, where we have a set of points in the plane such that every small subset spans many distinct distances. Finally, we consider an Additive Combinatorics problem, where we are given sets of real numbers such that every small subset has a large difference set. We derive new bounds for all of the above problems. Our proof technique is based on introducing an non-algebraic variant of additive energies. This abstract energy variant is based on edge colors in graphs.

math.CO↗
arXiv2018

Improved Bounds for Progression-Free Sets in $C_{8}^{n}$

Let $G$ be a finite group, and let $r_{3}(G)$ represent the size of the largest subset of $G$ without non-trivial three-term progressions. In a recent breakthrough, Croot, Lev and Pach proved that $r_{3}(C_{4}^{n}) \leqslant (3.61)^{n}$, where $C_{m}$ denotes the cyclic group of order $m$. For finite abelian groups $G \cong \prod_{i=1}^{n} C_{m_{i}}$, where $m_{1},\ldots,m_{n}$ denote positive integers such that $m_{1} | \ldots | m_{n}$, this also yields a bound of the form $r_{3}(G) \leqslant (0.903)^{\operatorname{rk}_{4}(G)} |G|$, with $\operatorname{rk}_{4}(G)$ representing the number of indices $i \in \left\{1,\ldots,n\right\}$ with $4\ |\ m_{i}$. In particular, $r_{3}(C_{8}^{n}) \leqslant (7.22)^{n}$. In this paper, we provide an exponential improvement for this bound, namely $r_{3}(C_{8}^{n}) \leq (7.09)^{n}$.

math.CO↗
arXiv2018

On Cartesian Products which Determine Few Distinct Distances

Every set of points $\mathcal{P}$ determines $Ω(|\mathcal{P}| / \log |\mathcal{P}|)$ distances. A close version of this was initially conjectured by Erdős in 1946 and rather recently proved by Guth and Katz. We show that when near this lower bound, a point set $\mathcal{P}$ of the form $A \times A$ must satisfy $|A - A| \ll |A|^{2-\frac{2}{7}} \log^{\frac{1}{7}} |A|$. This improves recent results of Hanson and Roche-Newton.

math.CO↗
arXiv2017

Higher Distance Energies and Expanders with Structure

We adapt the idea of higher moment energies, originally used in Additive Combinatorics, so that it would apply to problems in Discrete Geometry. This new approach leads to a variety of new results, such as (i) Improved bounds for the problem of distinct distances with local properties. (ii) Improved bounds for problems involving expanding polynomials in ${\mathbb R}[x,y]$ (Elekes-Ronyai type bounds) when one or two of the sets have structure. Higher moment energies seem to be related to additional problems in Discrete Geometry, to lead to new elegant theory, and to raise new questions.

math.CO↗
arXiv2017

A Polynomial Method Approach to Zero-Sum Subsets in $\mathbb{F}_{p}^{2}$

In this paper we prove that every subset of $\mathbb{F}_p^2$ meeting all $p+1$ lines passing through the origin has a zero-sum subset. This is motivated by a result of Gao, Ruzsa and Thangadurai which states that $OL(\mathbb{F}_{p}^{2})=p+OL(\mathbb{F}_{p})-1$, for sufficiently large primes $p$. Here $OL(G)$ denotes the so-called Olson constant of the additive group $G$ and represents the smallest integer such that no subset of cardinality $OL(G)$ is zero-sum-free. Our proof is in the spirit of the Combinatorial Nullstellensatz.

math.CO↗
arXiv2008

Generalization of the Apollonius Circles

The three Apollonius circles of a triangle, each passing through a triangle vertex, the corresponding vertex of the cevian triangle of the incenter and the corresponding vertex of the circumcevian triangle of the symmedian point, are coaxal. Similarly defined three circles remain coaxal, when the circumcevian triangle is defined with respect to any point on the triangle circumconic through the incenter and symmedian point. Inversion in the incircle of the reference triangle carries these three coaxal circles into coaxal circles, each passing through a vertex of the inverted triangle and centered on the opposite sideline, at the intersection of the orthotransversal with respect to a point on the Euler line of the inverted triangle. A similar circumconic exists in a more general configuration, when the cevian triangle is defined with respect to an arbitrary point, passing through this arbitrary point and isogonal conjugate of its complement.

math.HO↗
arXiv2007

Sharpness of the Finsler-Hadwiger inequality

In this paper we shall prove a sharpened version of the Finsler-Hadwiger inequality which is a strong generalization of Weitzenbock inequality. After that we give another refinement of this inequality and in the final part we provide some basic applications.

math.MG↗