Most Subsets are Balanced in Finite Groups

The sumset is one of the most basic and central objects in additive number theory. Many of the most important problems (such as Goldbach's conjecture and Fermat's Last theorem) can be formulated in terms of the sumset $S + S = \{x+y : x,y\in S\}$ of a set of integers $S$. A finite set of integers $A$ is sum-dominated if $|A+A| > |A-A|$. Though it was believed that the percentage of subsets of $\{0,...,n\}$ that are sum-dominated tends to zero, in 2006 Martin and O'Bryant proved a very small positive percentage are sum-dominated if the sets are chosen uniformly at random (through work of Zhao we know this percentage is approximately $4.5 \cdot 10^{-4}$). While most sets are difference-dominated in the integer case, this is not the case when we take subsets of many finite groups. We show that if we take subsets of larger and larger finite groups uniformly at random, then not only does the probability of a set being sum-dominated tend to zero but the probability that $|A+A|=|A-A|$ tends to one, and hence a typical set is balanced in this case. The cause of this marked difference in behavior is that subsets of $\{0,..., n\}$ have a fringe, whereas finite groups do not. We end with a detailed analysis of dihedral groups, where the results are in striking contrast to what occurs for subsets of integers.Comment: Version 2.0, 11 pages, 2 figure

Counting Co-Cyclic Lattices

There is a well-known asymptotic formula, due to W. M. Schmidt (1968) for the number of full-rank integer lattices of index at most $V$ in $\mathbb{Z}^n$. This set of lattices $L$ can naturally be partitioned with respect to the factor group $\mathbb{Z}^n/L$. Accordingly, we count the number of full-rank integer lattices $L \subseteq \mathbb{Z}^n$ such that $\mathbb{Z}^n/L$ is cyclic and of order at most $V$, and deduce that these co-cyclic lattices are dominant among all integer lattices: their natural density is $\left(\zeta(6) \prod_{k=4}^n \zeta(k)\right)^{-1} \approx 85\%$. The problem is motivated by complexity theory, namely worst-case to average-case reductions for lattice problems

Counting MSTD Sets in Finite Abelian Groups

In an abelian group G, a more sums than differences (MSTD) set is a subset A of G such that |A+A|>|A-A|. We provide asymptotics for the number of MSTD sets in finite abelian groups, extending previous results of Nathanson. The proof contains an application of a recently resolved conjecture of Alon and Kahn on the number of independent sets in a regular graph.Comment: 17 page

Number fields with prescribed norms

We study the distribution of extensions of a number field $k$ with fixed abelian Galois group $G$, from which a given finite set of elements of $k$ are norms. In particular, we show the existence of such extensions. Along the way, we show that the Hasse norm principle holds for $100\%$ of $G$-extensions of $k$, when ordered by conductor. The appendix contains an alternative purely geometric proof of our existence result.Comment: 35 pages, comments welcome