The Freiman--Ruzsa Theorem over Finite Fields

Let G be a finite abelian group of torsion r and let A be a subset of G. The Freiman--Ruzsa theorem asserts that if |A+A| < K|A| then A is contained in a coset of a subgroup of G of size at most r^{K^4}K^2|A|. It was conjectured by Ruzsa that the subgroup size can be reduced to r^{CK}|A| for some absolute constant C >= 2. This conjecture was verified for r = 2 in a sequence of recent works, which have, in fact, yielded a tight bound. In this work, we establish the same conjecture for any prime torsion

Small doubling in groups

Let A be a subset of a group G = (G,.). We will survey the theory of sets A with the property that |A.A| <= K|A|, where A.A = {a_1 a_2 : a_1, a_2 in A}. The case G = (Z,+) is the famous Freiman--Ruzsa theorem.Comment: 23 pages, survey article submitted to Proceedings of the Erdos Centenary conferenc

Freiman's theorem in finite fields via extremal set theory

Using various results from extremal set theory (interpreted in the language of additive combinatorics), we prove an asyptotically sharp version of Freiman's theorem in F_2^n: if A in F_2^n is a set for which |A + A| <= K|A| then A is contained in a subspace of size 2^{2K + O(\sqrt{K}\log K)}|A|; except for the O(\sqrt{K} \log K) error, this is best possible. If in addition we assume that A is a downset, then we can also cover A by O(K^{46}) translates of a coordinate subspace of size at most |A|, thereby verifying the so-called polynomial Freiman-Ruzsa conjecture in this case. A common theme in the arguments is the use of compression techniques. These have long been familiar in extremal set theory, but have been used only rarely in the additive combinatorics literature.Comment: 18 page

Approximate algebraic structure

We discuss a selection of recent developments in arithmetic combinatorics having to do with ``approximate algebraic structure'' together with some of their applications.Comment: 25 pages. Submitted to Proceedings of the ICM 2014. This version may be longer than the published one, as my submission was 4 pages too long with the official style fil

A note on the Freiman and Balog-Szemeredi-Gowers theorems in finite fields

We obtain quantitative versions of the Balog-Szemeredi-Gowers and Freiman theorems in the model case of a finite field geometry F_2^n, improving the previously known bounds in such theorems. For instance, if A is a subset of F_2^n such that |A+A| <= K|A| (thus A has small additive doubling), we show that there exists an affine subspace V of F_2^n of cardinality |V| >> K^{-O(\sqrt{K})} |A| such that |A \cap V| >> |V|/2K. Under the assumption that A contains at least |A|^3/K quadruples with a_1 + a_2 + a_3 + a_4 = 0 we obtain a similar result, albeit with the slightly weaker condition |V| >> K^{-O(K)}|A|.Comment: 12 pages, to appear in J. Aust. Math. Society. Some very minor revisions from previous versio

A note on Freiman models in Heisenberg groups

Green and Ruzsa recently proved that for any $s\ge2$, any small squaring set $A$ in a (multiplicative) abelian group, i.e. $|A\cdot A|<K|A|$, has a Freiman $s$-model: it means that there exists a group $G$ and a Freiman $s$-isomorphism from $A$ into $G$ such that $|G|<f(s,K)|A|$. In an unpublished note, Green proved that such a result does not necessarily hold in non abelian groups if $s\ge64$. The aim of this paper is improve Green's result by showing that it remains true under the weaker assumption $s\ge6$