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Oliver Roche-Newton

Publications and source records attributed to Oliver Roche-Newton.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
arXiv2020

Arcs in $\mathbb F_q^2$

An arc is a subset of $\mathbb F_q^2$ which does not contain any collinear triples. Let $A(q,k)$ denote the number of arcs in $\mathbb F_q^2$ with cardinality $k$. This paper is primarily concerned with estimating the size of $A(q,k)$ when $k$ is relatively large, namely $k=q^t$ for some $t>0$. Trivial estimates tell us that \[ {q \choose k} \leq A(q,k) \leq {q^2 \choose k}. \] We show that the behaviour of $A(q,k)$ changes significantly close to $t=1/2$. Below this threshold an elementary argument is used to prove that the trivial upper bound above cannot be improved significantly. On the other hand, for $t \geq 1/2+δ$, we use the theory of hypergraph containers to get an improved upper bound \[ A(q,k) \leq {q^{2-t+2δ} \choose k}. \] This technique is also used to give an upper bound for the size of the largest arc in a random subset of $\mathbb F_q^2$ which holds with high probability. For example, we prove that a $p$-random subset $Q \subset \mathbb F_q^2$ with $q^{-3/2}<p<q^{-1}$ contains an arc of size $Ω(q^{1/2})$ with high probability. The result is optimal for this range of $p$. Finally, this optimal bound for arcs in random sets is used to prove a finite field analogue of a result of Balogh and Solymosi, with a better exponent: there exists a subset $P \subset \mathbb F_q^2$ which does not contain any collinear quadruples, but with the property that for every $P' \subset P$ with $|P'| \geq |P|^{3/4+o(1)}$, $P'$ contains a collinear triple.

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arXiv2020

Sums, products and dilates on sparse graphs

Let $A \subset \mathbb R$ and $G \subset A \times A$. We prove that, for any $λ\in \mathbb R \setminus \{-1,0,1\}$, \[ \max \{|A+_G A|, |A+_G λA|, |A\cdot_G A|\} \gg |G|^{6/11}. \]

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arXiv2020

On iterated product sets with shifts II

The main result of this paper is the following: for all $b \in \mathbb Z$ there exists $k=k(b)$ such that \[ \max \{ |A^{(k)}|, |(A+u)^{(k)}| \} \geq |A|^b, \] for any finite $A \subset \mathbb Q$ and any non-zero $u \in \mathbb Q$. Here, $|A^{(k)}|$ denotes the $k$-fold product set $\{a_1\cdots a_k : a_1, \dots, a_k \in A \}$. Furthermore, our method of proof also gives the following $l_{\infty}$ sum-product estimate. For all $γ>0$ there exists a constant $C=C(γ)$ such that for any $A \subset \mathbb Q$ with $|AA| \leq K|A|$ and any $c_1,c_2 \in \mathbb Q \setminus \{0\}$, there are at most $K^C|A|^γ$ solutions to \[ c_1x + c_2y =1 ,\,\,\,\,\,\,\, (x,y) \in A \times A. \] In particular, this result gives a strong bound when $K=|A|^ε$, provided that $ε>0$ is sufficiently small, and thus improves on previous bounds obtained via the Subspace Theorem. In further applications we give a partial structure theorem for point sets which determine many incidences and prove that sum sets grow arbitrarily large by taking sufficiently many products. We utilise a query-complexity analogue of the polynomial Freiman-Ruzsa conjecture, due to Zhelezov and Pálvölgyi. This new tool replaces the role of the complicated setup of Bourgain and Chang, which we had previously used. Furthermore, there is a better quantitative dependence between the parameters.

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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".

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arXiv2020

An Energy Bound in the Affine Group

We prove a nontrivial energy bound for a finite set of affine transformations over a general field and discuss a number of implications. These include new bounds on growth in the affine group, a quantitative version of a theorem by Elekes about rich lines in grids. We also give a positive answer to a question of Yufei Zhao that for a plane point set P for which no line contains a positive proportion of points from P, there may be at most one line, meeting the set of lines defined by P in at most a constant multiple of |P| points.

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arXiv2020

Higher convexity and iterated sum sets

Let $f$ be a smooth real function with strictly monotone first $k$ derivatives. We show that for a finite set $A$, with $|A+A|\leq K|A|$, $|2^kf(A)-(2^k-1)f(A)|\gg_k |A|^{k+1-o(1)}/K^{O_k(1)}$. We deduce several new sum-product type implications, e.g. that $A+A$ being small implies unbounded growth for a many enough times iterated product set $A \cdots A$.

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arXiv2019

New results on sum-product type growth over fields

We prove a range of new sum-product type growth estimates over a general field $\mathbb{F}$, in particular the special case $\mathbb{F}=\mathbb{F}_p$. They are unified by the theme of "breaking the $3/2$ threshold", epitomising the previous state of the art. These estimates stem from specially suited applications of incidence bounds over $\mathbb{F}$, which apply to higher moments of representation functions. We establish the estimate $|R[A]| \gtrsim |A|^{8/5}$ for cardinality of the set $R[A]$ of distinct cross-ratios defined by triples of elements of a (sufficiently small if $\mathbb{F}$ has positive characteristic, similarly for the rest of the estimates) set $A\subset \mathbb{F}$, pinned at infinity. The cross-ratio naturally arises in various sum-product type questions of projective nature and is the unifying concept underlying most of our results. It enables one to take advantage of its symmetry properties as an onset of growth of, for instance, products of difference sets. The geometric nature of the cross-ratio enables us to break the version of the above threshold for the minimum number of distinct triangle areas $Ouu'$, defined by points $u,u'$ of a non-collinear point set $P\subset \mathbb{F}^2$. Another instance of breaking the threshold is showing that if $A$ is sufficiently small and has additive doubling constant $M$, then $|AA|\gtrsim M^{-2}|A|^{14/9}$. This result has a second moment version, which allows for new upper bounds for the number of collinear point triples in the set $A\times A\subset \mathbb{F}^2$, the quantity often arising in applications of geometric incidence estimates.

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arXiv2019

New Expander Bounds from Affine Group Energy

The purpose of this article is to further explore how the structure of the affine group can be used to deduce new incidence theorems, and to explore sum-product type applications of these incidence bounds, building on the recent work of Rudnev and Shkredov. We bound the energy of several systems of lines, in some cases obtaining a better energy bound than the corresponding bounds obtained by Rudnev and Shkredov by exploiting a connection with collinear quadruples. Our motivation for seeking to generalise and improve the incidence bound obtained by Rudnev and Shkredov comes from possible applications to sum-product problems. For example, we prove that, for any finite $A \subset \mathbb R$ the following superquadratic bound holds: \[ \left| \left \{ \frac{ab-cd}{a-c} : a,b,c,d \in A \right \} \right| \gg |A|^{2+\frac{1}{14}}. \] This improves the previously known bound with exponent $2$. We also give a threshold-beating asymmetric sum-product estimate for sets with small sum set by proving that there exists a positive constant $c$ such that for all finite $A,B \subset \mathbb R$, \[ |A+A| \ll K|A| \Rightarrow |AB| \gg_K |A||B|^{1/2+c}. \]

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arXiv2018

Constructions for the Elekes-Szabó and Elekes-Rónyai problems

We give a construction of a non-degenerate polynomial $F\in \mathbb R[x,y,z]$ and a set $A$ of cardinality $n$ such that $\left|Z(F)\cap (A \times A \times A) \right| \gg n^{\frac{3}{2}}$, thus providing a new lower bound construction for the Elekes--Szabó problem. We also give a related construction for the Elekes--Rónyai problem restricted to a subgraph. This consists of a polynomial $f\in \mathbb R[x,y]$ that is not additive or multiplicative, a set $A$ of size $n$, and a subset $P\subset A\times A$ of size $|P|\gg n^{3/2}$ on which $f$ takes only $n$ distinct values.

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arXiv2018

Improved Bounds for Pencils of Lines

We consider a question raised by Rudnev: given four pencils of $n$ concurrent lines in $\mathbb R^2$, with the four centres of the pencils non-collinear, what is the maximum possible size of the set of points where four lines meet? Our main result states that the number of such points is $O(n^{11/6})$, improving a result of Chang and Solymosi. We also consider constructions for this problem. Alon, Ruzsa and Solymosi constructed an arrangement of four non-collinear $n$-pencils which determine $Ω(n^{3/2})$ four-rich points. We give a construction to show that this is not tight, improving this lower bound by a logarithmic factor. We also give a construction of a set of $m$ $n$-pencils, whose centres are in general position, that determine $Ω_m(n^{3/2})$ $m$-rich points.

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arXiv2018

On the size of the set $AA+A$

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.

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arXiv2018

On iterated product sets with shifts

We prove that, for any finite set $A \subset \mathbb Q$ with $|AA| \leq K|A|$ and any positive integer $k$, the $k$-fold product set of the shift $A+1$ satisfies the bound $$| \{(a_1+1)(a_2+1) \cdots (a_k+1) : a_i \in A \}| \geq \frac{|A|^k}{(8k^4)^{kK}}. $$ This result is essentially optimal when $K$ is of the order $c\log|A|$, for a sufficiently small constant $c=c(k)$. Our main tool is a multiplicative variant of the $Λ$-constants used in harmonic analysis, applied to Dirichlet polynomials.

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arXiv2017

Packing Sets

For a given subset $A\subseteq \mathbb F_q^*$, we study the problem of finding a large packing set $B$ of $A$, that is, a set $B \subseteq \mathbb F_q^*$ such that $|AB|=|A||B|$. We prove the existence of such a $B$ of size $|B|\ge (q-1)/|A/A|$ and show that this bound is in general optimal. The case that $q=p$ is a prime and $A=\{1,2,\ldots,λ\}$ for some positive integer $λ$ is particularly interesting in view of the construction of limited-magnitude error correcting codes. Here we construct a packing set $B$ of size $|B|\gg p (λ\log p)^{-1}$ for any $λ\le c p^{1/2}$ for some explicitly calcuable constant $c$. This result is optimal up to the logarithmic factor.

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arXiv2017

A new expander and improved bounds for $A(A+A)$

The main result in this paper concerns a new five-variable expander. It is proven that for any finite set of real numbers $A$, $$|\{(a_1+a_2+a_3+a_4)^2+\log a_5 :a_1,a_2,a_3,a_4,a_5 \in A \}| \gg \frac{|A|^2}{\log |A|}.$$ This bound is optimal, up to logarithmic factors. The paper also gives new lower bounds for $|A(A-A)|$ and $|A(A+A)|$, improving on results from arXiv:1312.6438. The new bounds are $$|A(A-A)| \gtrapprox |A|^{3/2+\frac{1}{34}}$$ and $$|A(A+A)| \gtrapprox |A|^{3/2+\frac{5}{242}}.$$

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arXiv2017

Variations on the sum-product problem II

This is a sequel to the paper arXiv:1312.6438 by the same authors. In this sequel, we quantitatively improve several of the main results of arXiv:1312.6438, and build on the methods therein. The main new results is that, for any finite set $A \subset \mathbb R$, there exists $a \in A$ such that $|A(A+a)| \gtrsim |A|^{\frac{3}{2}+\frac{1}{186}}$. We give improved bounds for the cardinalities of $A(A+A)$ and $A(A-A)$. Also, we prove that $|\{(a_1+a_2+a_3+a_4)^2+\log a_5 : a_i \in A \}| \gg \frac{|A|^2}{\log |A|}$. The latter result is optimal up to the logarithmic factor.

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arXiv2017

Analogues of the Balog--Wooley Decomposition for Subsets of Finite Fields and Character Sums with Convolutions

Balog and Wooley have recently proved that any subset $A$ of either real numbers or of a prime finite field can be decomposed into two parts $U$ and $V$, one of small additive energy and the other of small multiplicative energy. In the case of arbitrary finite fields, we obtain an analogue that under some natural restrictions for a rational function $f$ both the additive energies of $U$ and $f(V)$ are small. Our method is based on bounds of character sums which leads to the restriction $\# A > q^{1/2}$ where $q$ is the field size. The bound is optimal, up to logarithmic factors, when $\# A \geq q^{9/13}$. Using $f(X)=X^{-1}$ we apply this result to estimate some triple additive and multiplicative character sums involving three sets with convolutions $ab+ac+bc$ with variables $a,b,c$ running through three arbitrary subsets of a finite field.

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