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Ernie Croot

Publications and source records attributed to Ernie Croot.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
arXiv2026

The Prouhet--Tarry--Escott problem for subsets with small doubling in integral domains

The Prouhet--Tarry--Escott (PTE) problem has many generalizations and has been studied in various algebraic domains. In this paper, we prove that finite subsets $S$ of integral domains with small additive doubling constant (but still a power of $|S|$) always contain solutions to Wright's generalization of the PTE problem: there are small subsets $A$ and $B$ of the same size such that $\sum_{a\in A} a^j=\sum_{b\in B} b^j$ for $1\le j\le k$, but not for $j=k+1$. More generally, our method gives simultaneous solutions for $m$ systems, with pairwise distinct $(k+1)$-th power sums. In contrast with the classical case $S\subseteq [N]$, where the problem has been studied by Wooley and others using Vinogradov's mean value theorem, our approach is based on polynomial identities and additive properties of $S$. We also discuss barriers to extending these results to broader settings.

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arXiv2026

A weighted entropy approach for the quadratic inverse large sieve conjecture

The quadratic inverse large sieve problem predicts that the examples sharp at the square-root threshold are essentially quadratic. Hanson proved the first unconditional result in this direction: if $A\subseteq[N]$, $|A|\gg\sqrt N$, and $|A_p|\le p/2+O(1)$ for every prime $p$, then $A$ contains $\gg\log N$ elements in the image of a single quadratic. We significantly improve this lower bound to \[ \exp\left(c\frac{\sqrt{\log N}}{\log\log N}\right). \] We also prove density-dependent variants, including a two-set version motivated by Green--Harper's robust inverse large sieve conjectures and their connection with the inverse Goldbach problem. Combined with a theorem of Elsholtz--Harper on hypothetical decompositions of the primes, our results show that any such decomposition would force both summands to have large intersections with quadratic images. Our proof combines a weighted entropy argument with sieve estimates, inspired by the recent work of Croot--Mao--Pohoata--Sheffer--Yip.

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arXiv2026

A combinatorial large sieve for Sidon sets, distances, and norm forms

We develop a new combinatorial large sieve method for sets with bounded algebraic multiplicities. The method exploits algebraic splitting modulo many small primes: local congruence branching produces many modular collisions, while global bounded-multiplicity hypotheses force these collisions to be rare. As a first application, we prove that every Sidon subset $A\subset\{1^2,\ldots,N^2\}$ satisfies \[ |A| \le N\exp\left( -c\frac{\log N}{\log\log N} \right) \] for some absolute constant $c>0$. This gives the first super-polylogarithmic saving for a classical problem of Alon and Erd\H{o}s. As a second application, we establish new upper bounds for two grid-distance problems. We show that the largest subset of $[N]^2$ with no repeated distance has size at most $N\exp\left(-c\log N/\log\log N\right)$, giving the first progress in over thirty years on a problem of Erd\H{o}s and Guy. The same method also gives a similar saving for subsets of $[N]^2$ with no isosceles triangles, a problem recently popularized by Ellenberg and by the PatternBoost work of Charton, Ellenberg, Wagner, and Williamson. We then develop an entropic version of the method. This gives bounds for $B_2[g]$-sets in the squares and for analogous bounded-multiplicity problems associated with norm forms over arbitrary number fields. More importantly, this new method also allows us to establish the first nontrivial bounds for $B_3[g]$-sets in the cubes and $B_4[g]$-sets in the fourth powers.

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arXiv2026

4-cycle-free induced subgraphs of grid graphs

The avoidance of induced forests, or induced acyclic subgraphs, in $d$-dimensional grid graphs, or lattice graphs, has been studied in Alon et al. and later in Caragiannis et al., finding upper and lower bounds with respect to the number of vertices in a single dimension $n$ and the dimension $d$. In this work, we study the avoidance of induced $C_4$-free subgraphs, a superset of induced forests, of $2$-dimensional grid graphs $G$ and characterize the maximal sets $S \subseteq V$ such that the induced subgraph $G_S$ of $G$ with vertex set $S$ is $C_4$-free. Additionally, we will give upper and lower bounds on the number of $C_4$-free induced subgraphs with slightly fewer vertices than contained in the maximum.

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arXiv2026

Hilbert cubes in sets with arithmetic properties

In this paper, we introduce new general frameworks for estimating the maximal dimension of Hilbert cubes contained in finite truncations of arbitrary sets. As applications, we investigate Hilbert cubes in a range of arithmetic sets, including perfect powers, powerful numbers, primes, smooth numbers, and squarefree numbers. Along the way, we substantially sharpen several earlier results of Dietmann-Elshotlz, Erd\H{o}s-S\'ark\"ozy-Stewart, Hajdu, and S\'ark\"ozy, and we obtain bounds that are sharp up to the implied constant in several cases. Additionally, we prove conditional results of independent interest, including an almost sharp uniform upper bound on the number of $k$-th powers in an arithmetic progression for each $k\geq 4$, assuming the ABC conjecture.

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arXiv2025

An inverse theorem on sets with rich additive structure modulo primes

In this paper, we prove several results on the structure of maximal sets $S \subseteq [N]$ such that $S$ mod $p$ is contained in a short arithmetic progression, or the union of short progressions, where $p$ ranges over a subset of primes in an interval $[y,2y]$ with $(\log N)^{O(1)} < y \leq N$. We also provide several constructions demonstrating the sharpness of our results. Furthermore, as an application, we provide several improvements on the larger sieve bound for $|S|$ when $S$ mod $p$ has strong additive structure, parallel to the work of Green--Harper and Shao for improvements on the large sieve.

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arXiv2025

Integers with small digits in multiple bases

We show that, for any $r\geq 1$, if $g_1,\ldots,g_r$ are distinct coprime integers, sufficiently large depending only on $r$, then for any $\epsilon>0$ there are infinitely many integers $n$ such that all but $\epsilon \log n$ of the digits of $n$ are $\leq g_i/2$ in base $g_i$ for all $1\leq i\leq r$. In other words, for any fixed large bases, there are infinitely many $n$ such that almost all of the digits of $n$ are small in all bases simultaneously. This is both a quantitative and qualitative improvement over previous work of Croot, Mousavi, and Schmidt. As a consequence, we obtain a weak answer to a conjecture of Graham concerning divisibility of $\binom{2n}{n}$.

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arXiv2025

Diophantine tuples and product sets in shifted powers

Let $k\geq 2$ and $n\neq 0$. A Diophantine tuple with property $D_k(n)$ is a set of positive integers $A$ such that $ab+n$ is a $k$-th power for all $a,b\in A$ with $a\neq b$. Such generalizations of classical Diophantine tuples have been studied extensively. In this paper, we prove several results related to robust versions of such Diophantine tuples and discuss their applications to product sets contained in a nontrivial shift of the set of all perfect powers or some of its special subsets. In particular, we substantially improve several results by B\'{e}rczes--Dujella--Hajdu--Luca, and Yip. We also prove several interesting conditional results. Our proofs are based on a novel combination of ideas from sieve methods, Diophantine approximation, and extremal graph theory.

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arXiv2024

Past and future of the cap set problem

We survey the history of the capset problem in the context of related results on progression-free sets, discuss recent progress, and mention further directions to explore.

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arXiv2023

On the image of convolutions along an arithmetic progression

We consider the question of determining the structure of the set of all $d$-dimensional vectors of the form $N^{-1}(1_A*1_{-A}(x_1), ..., 1_A*1_{-A}(x_d))$ for $A \subseteq \{1,...,N\}$, and also the set of all $(2N+1)^{-1}(1_B*1_B(x_1), ..., 1_B*1_B(x_d))$, for $B \subseteq \{-N, -N+1, ..., 0, 1, ..., N\}$, where $x_1,...,x_d$ are fixed positive integers (we let $N \to \infty$). Using an elementary method related to the Birkhoff-von Neumann theorem on decompositions of doubly-stochastic matrices we show that both the above two sets of vectors roughly form polytopes; and of particular interest is the question of bounding the number of corner vertices, as well as understanding their structure.

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arXiv2023

Prime sum graphs and the induced trees they contain

In this paper we show that prime sum graphs on $n$ vertices -- which are graphs on vertex set $\{1,2,...,n\}$ where $ij$ is an edge when $i+j$ is prime -- contain all trees with at most $\exp( c \log n / \log\log n)$ vertices as induced subgraphs. We also prove some results for related graphs, and end with some unsolved problems.

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arXiv2022

On a conjecture of Graham on the p-divisibility of central binomial coefficients

We show that for every $r \geq 1$, and all $r$ distinct (sufficiently large) primes $p_1,..., p_r > p_0(r)$, there exist infinitely many integers $n$ such that ${2n \choose n}$ is divisible by these primes to only low multiplicity. From a theorem of Kummer, an upper bound for the number of times that a prime $p_j$ can divide ${2n \choose n}$ is $1+\log n / \log p_j$; and our theorem shows that for every $\varepsilon > 0$, $r \geq 1$, and any sufficiently large primes $p_1,...,p_r > p_0(\varepsilon,r)$, we can find integers $n$ where for $j=1,...,r$, $p_j$ divides ${2n \choose n}$ with multiplicity at most $\varepsilon \log n/\log p_j$. We connect this result to a famous conjecture by R. L. Graham on whether there are infinitely many integers $n$ such that ${2n \choose n}$ is coprime to $105$.

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arXiv2019

On a Class of Sums with Unexpectedly High Cancellation, and its Applications

Following attempts at an analytic proof of the Pentagonal Number Theorem, we report on the discovery of a general principle leading to an unexpected cancellation of oscillating sums. After stating the motivation, and our theorem, we apply it to prove several results on the Prouhet-Tarry-Escott Problem, integer partitions, and the distribution of prime numbers. Regarding the Prouhet-Tarry-Escott problem, we show that \begin{align*} \sum_{|\ell|\leq x}(4x^2-4\ell^2)^{2r}-\sum_{|\ell|<x}(4x^2-(2\ell+1)^2)^{2r}=\text{polynomial w.r.t. } x \text{ with degree }2r-1. \end{align*} This can perhaps be proved using properties of Bernoulli polynomials, but the claim fell out of our method in a more natural and motivated way. Using this result, we solve an approximate version of the PTE Problem, and in doing so our work in the approximate case exceeds the bounds one can prove using a pigeonhole argument, which seems remarkable. Also, we prove that $$ \sum_{\ell^2 < n} (-1)^\ell p(n-\ell^2)\ \sim\ (-1)^n 2^{-3/4} n^{-1/4} \sqrt{p(n)}, $$ where $p(n)$ is the usual partition function. We get the following "Weak pentagonal number theorem", in which we can replace the partition function $p(n)$ with Chebyshev $\Psi$ function: $$ \sum_{0 < \ell < \sqrt{xT}/2} \Psi([e^{\sqrt{x - \frac{(2\ell)^2}{T}}},\ e^{\sqrt{x - \frac{(2\ell-1)^2}{T}}}])\ =\Psi(e^{\sqrt{x}})\left(\frac{1}{2} + O\left (e^{-0.196\sqrt{x}}\right)\right), $$ where $T=e^{0.786\sqrt{x}}$, where $\Psi([a,b]) := \sum_{n\in [a,b]} \Lambda(n)$ and $\Psi(x) = \Psi([1,x])$, where $\Lambda$ is the von Mangoldt function. Note that this last equation (sum over $\ell$) is stronger than one would get using a strong form of the Prime Number Theorem and also a naive use of the Riemann Hypothesis in each interval, since the widths of the intervals are smaller than $e^{\frac{1}{2} \sqrt{x}}$, making the RH estimate ``trivial".

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arXiv2014

Few products, many h-fold sums

Improving upon a technique of Croot and Hart, we show that for every $h$, there exists an $ε> 0$ such that if $A \subseteq \mathbb{R}$ is sufficiently large and $|A.A| \le |A|^{1+ε}$, then $|hA| \ge |A|^{Ω(e^{\sqrt{c\log{h}}})}$.

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arXiv2014

Order-preserving Freiman isomorphisms

An order-preserving Freiman 2-isomorphism is a map $\phi:X \rightarrow \mathbb{R}$ such that $\phi(a) < \phi(b)$ if and only if $a < b$ and $\phi(a)+\phi(b) = \phi(c)+\phi(d)$ if and only if $a+b=c+d$ for any $a,b,c,d \in X$. We show that for any $A \subseteq \mathbb{Z}$, if $|A+A| \le K|A|$, then there exists a subset $A' \subseteq A$ such that the following holds: $|A'| \gg_K |A|$ and there exists an order-preserving Freiman 2-isomorphism $\phi: A' \rightarrow [-c|A|,c|A|] \cap \mathbb{Z}$ where $c$ depends only on $K$. Several applications are also presented.

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arXiv2013

Polynomials and Primes in Generalized Arithmetic Progressions (Revised Version)

We provide upper bounds on the density of a symmetric generalized arithmetic progression lacking nonzero elements of the form h(n) for natural numbers n, or h(p) with p prime, for appropriate polynomials h with integer coefficients. The prime variant can be interpreted as a multi-dimensional, polynomial extension of Linnik's Theorem. This version is a revision of the published version. Most notably, the properness hypotheses have been removed from Theorems 2 and 3, and the numerology in Theorem 2 has been improved.

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