An improved sum-product estimate for general finite fields

This paper improves on a sum-product estimate obtained by Katz and Shen for subsets of a finite field whose order is not prime

New sum-product type estimates over finite fields

Let $F$ be a field with positive odd characteristic $p$. We prove a variety of new sum-product type estimates over $F$. They are derived from the theorem that the number of incidences between $m$ points and $n$ planes in the projective three-space $PG(3,F)$, with $m\geq n=O(p^2)$, is $$O( m\sqrt{n} + km ),$$ where $k$ denotes the maximum number of collinear planes. The main result is a significant improvement of the state-of-the-art sum-product inequality over fields with positive characteristic, namely that \begin{equation}\label{mres} |A\pm A|+|A\cdot A| =\Omega \left(|A|^{1+\frac{1}{5}}\right), \end{equation} for any $A$ such that $|A|<p^{\frac{5}{8}}.$Comment: This is a revised version: Theorem 1 was incorrect as stated. We give its correct statement; this does not seriously affect the main arguments throughout the paper. Also added is a seres of remarks, placing the result in the context of the current state of the ar

A sum-product theorem in function fields

Let $A$ be a finite subset of \ffield, the field of Laurent series in $1/t$ over a finite field $\mathbb{F}_q$. We show that for any $\epsilon>0$ there exists a constant $C$ dependent only on $\epsilon$ and $q$ such that $\max\{|A+A|,|AA|\}\geq C |A|^{6/5-\epsilon}$. In particular such a result is obtained for the rational function field $\mathbb{F}_q(t)$. Identical results are also obtained for finite subsets of the $p$-adic field $\mathbb{Q}_p$ for any prime $p$.Comment: Simplification of argument and note that methods also work for the p-adic

On additive shifts of multiplicative almost-subgroups in finite fields

We prove that for sets $A, B, C \subset \mathbb{F}_p$ with $|A|=|B|=|C| \leq \sqrt{p}$ and a fixed $0 \neq d \in \mathbb{F}_p$ holds $$\max(|AB|, |(A+d)C|) \gg|A|^{1+1/26}.$$ In particular, $$|A(A+1)| \gg |A|^{1 + 1/26}$$ and $$\max(|AA|, |(A+1)(A+1)|) \gg |A|^{1 + 1/26}.$$ The first estimate improves the bound by Roche-Newton and Jones. In the general case of a field of order $q = p^m$ we obtain similar estimates with the exponent $1+1/559 + o(1)$ under the condition that $AB$ does not have large intersection with any subfield coset, answering a question of Shparlinski. Finally, we prove the estimate $$\left| \sum_{x \in \mathbb{F}_q} \psi(x^n) \right| \ll q^{\frac{7 - 2\delta_2}{8}}n^{\frac{2+2\delta_2}{8}}$$ for Gauss sums over $\mathbb{F}_q$, where $\psi$ is a non-trivial additive character and $\delta_2 = 1/56 + o(1)$. The estimate gives an improvement over the classical Weil bound when $q^{1/2} \ll n = o\left( q^{29/57 + o(1)} \right)$

An Improved Point-Line Incidence Bound Over Arbitrary Fields

We prove a new upper bound for the number of incidences between points and lines in a plane over an arbitrary field $\mathbb{F}$, a problem first considered by Bourgain, Katz and Tao. Specifically, we show that $m$ points and $n$ lines in $\mathbb{F}^2$, with $m^{7/8}<n<m^{8/7}$, determine at most $O(m^{11/15}n^{11/15})$ incidences (where, if $\mathbb{F}$ has positive characteristic $p$, we assume $m^{-2}n^{13}\ll p^{15}$). This improves on the previous best known bound, due to Jones. To obtain our bound, we first prove an optimal point-line incidence bound on Cartesian products, using a reduction to a point-plane incidence bound of Rudnev. We then cover most of the point set with Cartesian products, and we bound the incidences on each product separately, using the bound just mentioned. We give several applications, to sum-product-type problems, an expander problem of Bourgain, the distinct distance problem and Beck's theorem.Comment: 18 pages. To appear in the Bulletin of the London Mathematical Societ

Four-variable expanders over the prime fields

Let $\mathbb{F}_p$ be a prime field of order $p>2$, and $A$ be a set in $\mathbb{F}_p$ with very small size in terms of $p$. In this note, we show that the number of distinct cubic distances determined by points in $A\times A$ satisfies $$|(A-A)^3+(A-A)^3|\gg |A|^{8/7},$$ which improves a result due to Yazici, Murphy, Rudnev, and Shkredov. In addition, we investigate some new families of expanders in four and five variables. We also give an explicit exponent of a problem of Bukh and Tsimerman, namely, we prove that $$\max \left\lbrace |A+A|, |f(A, A)|\right\rbrace\gg |A|^{6/5},$$ where $f(x, y)$ is a quadratic polynomial in $\mathbb{F}_p[x, y]$ that is not of the form $g(\alpha x+\beta y)$ for some univariate polynomial $g$.Comment: Accepted in PAMS, 201