arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Javier Cilleruelo.
We present a new method to obtain infinite Sidon sequences, based on the discrete logarithm. We construct an infinite Sidon sequence A, with A(x)= x^{\sqrt 2-1+o(1)}. Ruzsa proved the existence of a Sidon sequence with similar counting function but his proof was not constructive. Our method generalizes to B_h sequences: For all h\ge 3, there is a B_h sequence A such that A(x)=x^{\sqrt{(h-1)^2+1}-(h-1)+o(1)}.
Erdös conjectured the existence of an infinite Sidon sequence of positive integers which is also an asymptotic basis of order 3. We make progress towards this conjecture in several directions. First we prove the conjecture for all cyclic groups Z_N with N large enough. In second place we prove by probabilistic methods that there is an infinite B_2[2] sequence which is an asymptotic basis of order 3. Finally we prove that for all c>0 there is a Sidon sequence which is an asymptotic basis of order 3+c,that is to say, any positive sufficiently large integer n can be written as a sum of 4 elements of the sequence, one of them smaller than n^c.
For $h=3$ and $h=4$ we prove the existence of infinite $B_h$ sequences $\B$ with counting function $$\mathcal{B}(x)= x^{\sqrt{(h-1)^2+1}-(h-1) + o(1)}.$$ This result extends a construction of I. Ruzsa for $B_2$ sequences.
We introduce several new methods to obtain upper bounds on the number of solutions of the congruences $f(x) \equiv y \pmod p$ and $f(x) \equiv y^2 \pmod p,$ with a prime $p$ and a polynomial $f$, where $(x,y)$ belongs to an arbitrary square with side length $M$. We use these results and methods to derive non-trivial upper bounds for the number of hyperelliptic curves $Y^2=X^{2g+1} + a_{2g-1}X^{2g-1} +...+ a_1X+a_0$ over the finite field $\F_p$ of $p$ elements, with coefficients in a $2g$-dimensional cube $ (a_0,..., a_{2g-1})\in [R_0+1,R_0+M]\times...\times [R_{2g-1}+1,R_{2g-1}+M]$ that are isomorphic to a given curve and give an almost sharp lower bound on the number of non-isomorphic hyperelliptic curves with coefficients in that cube. Furthermore, we study the size of the smallest box that contain a partial trajectory of a polynomial dynamical system over $\F_p$.
We use Sidon sets to present an elementary method to study some combinatorial problems in finite fields, such as sum product estimates, solubility of some equations and distribution of sequences in small intervals. We obtain classic and more recent results avoiding the use of exponential sums, the usual tool to deal with these problems.
For any irreducible quadratic polynomial f(x) in Z[x] we obtain the estimate log l.c.m.(f(1),...,f(n))= n log n + Bn + o(n) where B is a constant depending on f.
Erd\H os and Rényi claimed and Vu proved that for all $h \ge 2$ and for all $ε> 0$, there exists $g = g_h(ε)$ and a sequence of integers $A$ such that the number of ordered representations of any number as a sum of $h$ elements of $A$ is bounded by $g$, and such that $|A \cap [1,x]| \gg x^{1/h - ε}$. We give two new proofs of this result. The first one consists of an explicit construction of such a sequence. The second one is probabilistic and shows the existence of such a $g$ that satisfies $g_h(ε) \ll ε^{-1}$, improving the bound $g_h(ε) \ll ε^{-h+1}$ obtained by Vu. Finally we use the "alteration method" to get a better bound for $g_3(ε)$, obtaining a more precise estimate for the growth of $B_3[g]$ sequences.
Motivated by a question of Sárközy, we study the gaps in the product sequence $\B=\A ... \A=\{b_n=a_ia_j, a_i,a_j\in \A\}$ when $\A$ has upper Banach density $α>0$. We prove that there are infinitely many gaps $b_{n+1}-b_n\ll α^{-3}$ and that for $t\ge2$ there are infinitely many $t$-gaps $b_{n+t}-b_{n}\ll t^2α^{-4}$. Furthermore we prove that these estimates are best possible. We also discuss a related question about the cardinality of the quotient set $\A/\A=\{a_i/a_j, a_i,a_j\in \A\}$ when $\A\subset\{1,..., N\}$ and $|\A|=αN$.
We give asymptotic sharp estimates for the cardinality of a set of residue classes with the property that the representation function is bounded by a prescribed number. We then use this to obtain an analogous result for sets of integers, answering an old question of Simon Sidon.
When $A$ and $B$ are subsets of the integers in $[1,X]$ and $[1,Y]$ respectively, with $|A| \geq αX$ and $|B| \geq βX$, we show that the number of rational numbers expressible as $a/b$ with $(a,b)$ in $A \times B$ is $\gg (αβ)^{1+ε}XY$ for any $ε> 0$, where the implied constant depends on $ε$ alone. We then construct examples that show that this bound cannot in general be improved to $\gg αβXY$. We also resolve the natural generalisation of our problem to arbitrary subsets $C$ of the integer points in $[1,X] \times [1,Y]$. Finally, we apply our results to answer a question of Sárközy concerning the differences of consecutive terms of the product sequence of a given integer sequence.
Let A be a set of integers and let h \geq 2. For every integer n, let r_{A, h}(n) denote the number of representations of n in the form n=a_1+...+a_h, where a_1,...,a_h belong to the set A, and a_1\leq ... \leq a_h. The function r_{A,h} from the integers Z to the nonnegative integers N_0 U {\infty} is called the representation function of order h for the set A. We prove that every function f from Z to N_0 U {\infty} satisfying liminf_{|n|->\infty} f (n)\geq g is the representation function of order h for some sequence A of integers, and that A can be constructed so that it increases "almost" as slowly as any given B_h[g] sequence. In particular, for every epsilon >0 and g \geq g(h,epsilon), we can construct a sequence A satisfying r_{A,h}=f and A(x)\gg x^{(1/h)-epsilon}.
A set A of positive integers is called a perfect difference set if every nonzero integer has an unique representation as the difference of two elements of A. We construct dense perfect difference sets from dense Sidon sets. As a consequence of this new approach, we prove that there exists a perfect difference set A such that A(x) >> x^{\sqrt{2}-1-o(1)}. We also prove that there exists a perfect difference set A such that limsup_{x\to \infty}A(x)/\sqrt x\geq 1/\sqrt 2.
Rudin conjectured that there are never more than c N^(1/2) squares in an arithmetic progression of length N. Motivated by this surprisingly difficult problem we formulate more than twenty conjectures in harmonic analysis, analytic number theory, arithmetic geometry, discrete geometry and additive combinatorics (some old and some new) which each, if true, would shed light on Rudin's conjecture.