arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Steven Senger.
This is an incomplete attempt to show that the upper bound of $\lesssim n^\frac{4}{3}$ on the number unit distances determined by a large finite set of $n$ points in the plane is not sharp. The methods also say something about sets of $n$ points and $n$ lines that attain the sharp bound of the Szemer\'edi-Trotter point-line incidence bound.
We study the parabolic variant of the Erd\H os--Falconer distance problem in finite fields. That is, if $q$ is odd, we seek size thresholds beyond which any subset $E\subset \mathbb F_q^2$ will determine many distinct parabolic distances. This problem has a rich history because the parabolic distance functional shares many properties with the standard distance functional, but exhibits many distinct behaviors. Here we begin with rather standard Fourier analytic arguments, but diverge into additive combinatorics to handle the central obstructions. We provide a suite of positive results and corresponding sharpness examples.
We use techniques from the study of the Falconer distance conjecture to explore conditions which guarantee largeness (in terms of bounded $L^2$ density/Lebesgue measure and Hausdorff measure) of the set of lengths of step-sizes of three-term arithmetic progressions which occur within fractal sets, as well as analogous statements in discrete settings. Our main result is a version of {\L}aba and Pramanik's result in arxiv:0712.3882 that relies only on an assumption of a lower bound, $\delta$, on the mass of the measure $\mu$ together with an upper bound, $M$ on the $L^q$ norm of its Fourier transform for some $q\in(2,3]$ depending on the parameters $\delta$ and $M$.
We establish a sharp point-sphere incidence bound in finite fields for point sets exhibiting controlled additive structure. Working in the framework of \((4,s)\)-Salem sets, which quantify pseudorandomness via fourth-order additive energy, we prove that if \(P\subset \mathbb{F}_q^d\) is a \((4,s)\)-Salem set with \(s\in \big( \frac{1}{4}, \frac{1}{2} \big]\) and \(|P|\ll q^{ \frac{d}{4s}}\), then for any finite family \(S\) of spheres in \(\mathbb{F}_q^d\), \[ \bigg| I(P,S)-\frac{|P||S| }{q} \bigg| \ll q^{\frac{d}{4}}\,|P|^{1-s}\,|S|^{\frac{3}{4}}. \] This estimate improves the classical point-sphere incidence bounds for arbitrary point sets across a broad parameter range. The proof combines additive energy estimates with a lifting argument that converts point-sphere incidences into point-hyperplane incidences in one higher dimension while preserving the \((4,s)\)-Salem property. As applications, we derive refined bounds for unit distances and sum-product type phenomena, and we extend the method to \((u,s)\)-Salem sets for even moments \(u\ge4\).
We show that the graph of a bent function is a Salem set in an appropriate sense. We also establish a simple result that quantifies redundancies in the difference operators of a function, which applies to bent functions over fields of odd characteristic via their equivalence to perfect non-linear functions in that setting. We end by demonstrating, by entirely elementary means, that the distance between two distinct planar functions must be at least two.
We explain the triangular gaps observed experimentally in the most popular sizes of the $h$-fold iterated sumset, $hA,$ when $A$ is a randomly chosen four-element subset of the first $q$ natural numbers, for $q$ much larger than $h.$
A More Sums Than Differences (MSTD) set is a finite set of integers $A$ where the cardinality of its sumset, $A+A$, is greater than the cardinality of its difference set, $A-A$. We address a problem posed by Samuel Allen Alexander that asks whether there exists an infinite sequence of sets alternating between being MSTD and More Differences Than Sums (MDTS), where each set properly contains the previous. While a companion paper resolved this using `filling in' techniques, we solve the more challenging `non-filling-in' version, where any missing integer between a set's minimum and maximum elements remains missing in all subsequent sets.
A More Sums Than Difference (MSTD) set is a finite set of integers $A$ where the cardinality of its sumset, $A+A$, is greater than the cardinality of its difference set, $A-A$. Since addition is commutative while subtraction isn't, it was conjectured that MSTD sets are rare. As Martin and O'Bryant proved a small (but positive) percentage are MSTD, it is natural to ask what additional properties can we impose on a chain of MSTD sets; in particular, can we construct a sequence of sets alternating between being MSTD and More Difference Than Sums (MDTS) where each properly contains the previous? We provide several such constructions; the first are trivial and proceed by filling in all missing elements from the minimum to maximum elements of $A$, while the last is a more involved construction that prohibits adding any such elements.
We prove dyadic entropy expansion for the observables $X+Y$ and $f(X,Y)$ under Frostman nonconcentration hypotheses on a prescribed, possibly dependent law. For an integer $n\ge1$, write $H_n(Z)=H(\lfloor 2^nZ\rfloor)$ for the base-two Shannon entropy at resolution $2^{-n}$; thus $n$ indexes the fineness of the dyadic discretization. For every $0 4/3$, we obtain $\max\{H_n(X+Y),H_n(f(X,Y))\}\ge (\frac{s_1+s_2}{2}+\varepsilon)n-O(1)$ for an explicit $\varepsilon>0$. Here the baseline averages the two Frostman exponents. We also classify the exceptional coordinate representations and construct obstructions for algebraic affine directions with Frostman constants uniform in the scale.
Following recent work on the VC-dimension of subsets of various pseudorandom graphs, we study the VC-dimension of Hamming graphs, which have proved somewhat resistant to the standard techniques in the literature. Our methods are elementary, and agree with or improve upon previously known results. In particular, for $H(2,q)$ we show tight bounds on the size of a subset of vertices to guarantee VC-dimension 2 or 3. We also prove an assortment of results for other parameters, with many of these being tight as well.
We study a variant of the Falconer distance problem for dot products. In particular, for fractal subsets $A\subset \mathbb{R}^n$ and $a,x\in \mathbb{R}^n$, we study sets of the form \[ \Pi_x^a(A) := \{\alpha \in \mathbb{R} : (a-x)\cdot y= \alpha, \text{ for some $y\in A$}\}. \] We discuss some of what is already known to give a picture of the current state of the art, as well as prove some new results and special cases. We obtain lower bounds on the Hausdorff dimension of $A$ to guarantee that $\Pi^a_x(A)$ is large in some quantitative sense for some $a\in A$ (i.e. $\Pi_x^a(A)$ has large Hausdorff dimension, positive measure, or nonempty interior). Our approach to all three senses of "size" is the same, and we make use of both classical and recent results on projection theory.
We study questions inspired by Erd\H os' celebrated distance problems with dot products in lieu of distances, and for more than a single pair of points. In particular, we study point configurations present in large finite point sets in the plane that are described by weighted trees. We give new lower bounds on the number of distinct sets of dot products serving as weights for a given type of tree in any large finite point set. We also as demonstrate the existence of many repetitions of some special sets of dot products occurring in a given type of tree in different constructions, narrowing gap between the best known upper and lower bounds on these configurations.
In a previous article the authors determined the best-known upper bound for the cardinality of the image set for several classes of functions, including planar functions. Here, we show that the upper bound cannot be tight for planar functions over finite fields. This follows from a more general result proving that the upper bound cannot be tight for a much larger class of functions over an abelian group of order $y^n$ with $n>1$. Moreover, the tightness of the upper bound for the larger class of functions is equivalent to the existence of planar difference sets. To obtain better upper bounds, we first completely resolve an optimization problem involving the partitioning of a number into triangular parts. Our solution, which is algorithmic and constructive, allows us to determine tight upper bounds provided the relevant parameters are given explicitly. We also provide a suite of upper bounds which can be applied across a range of parameters. These are established via a well-studied Diophantine equation and are related to class numbers of quadratic number fields.
In this paper, we introduce a new and direct approach to study the solvability of systems of equations generated by bilinear forms. More precisely, let $B (\cdot, \cdot)$ be a non-degenerate bilinear form and $E$ be a set in $\mathbb{F}_q^2$. We prove that if $|E|\gg q^{5/3}$ then the number of triples $(B(x, y), B(y, z), B(z, x))$ with $x, y, z\in E$ is at least $cq^3$ for some positive constant $c$. This significantly improves a result due to the fifth listed author (2009).
For Borel subsets $\Theta\subset O(d)\times \mathbb{R}^d$ (the set of all rigid motions) and $E\subset \mathbb{R}^d$, we define \begin{align*} \Theta(E):=\bigcup_{(g,z)\in \Theta}(gE+z). \end{align*} In this paper, we investigate the Lebesgue measure and Hausdorff dimension of $\Theta(E)$ given the dimensions of the Borel sets $E$ and $\Theta$, when $\Theta$ has product form. We also study this question by replacing rigid motions with the class of dilations and translations; and similarity transformations. The dimensional thresholds are sharp. Our results are variants of some previously known results in the literature when $E$ is restricted to smooth objects such as spheres, $k$-planes, and surfaces.
We prove some novel multi-parameter point-line incidence estimates in vector spaces over finite fields. While these could be seen as special cases of higher-dimensional incidence results, they outperform their more general counterparts in those contexts. We go on to present a number of applications to illustrate their use in combinatorial problems from geometry and number theory.
Let $G$ be a graph and $U\subset V(G)$ be a set of vertices. For each $v\in U$, let $h_v\colon U\to \{0, 1\}$ be the function defined by \[h_v(u)=\begin{cases} &1 ~\mbox{if}~u\sim v, u\in U\\&0 ~\mbox{if}~u\not\sim v, u\in U\end{cases},\] and set $\mathcal{H}(U):=\{h_v\colon v\in U\}$. The first purpose of this paper is to study the following question: What families of graphs $G$ and what conditions on $U$ do we need so that the VC-dimension of $\mathcal{H}(U)$ can be determined? We show that if $G$ is a pseudo-random graph, then under some mild conditions, the VC dimension of $\mathcal{H}(U)$ can be bounded from below. Specific cases of this theorem recover and improve previous results on VC-dimension of functions defined by the well-studied distance and dot-product graphs over a finite field.
The main purpose of this paper is to prove that the point-line incidence bound due to Vinh (2011) over arbitrary finite fields can be improved in certain ranges by using tools from the VC-dimension theory. As consequences, a number of applications will be discussed in detail.