English

Additive triples in groups of odd prime order

Combinatorics 2024-05-09 v1

Abstract

Let pp be an odd prime. For nontrivial proper subsets A,BA,B of Zp\mathbb{Z}_p of cardinality s,ts,t, respectively, we count the number r(A,B,B)r(A,B,B) of additive triples, namely elements of the form (a,b,a+b)(a, b, a+b) in A×B×BA \times B \times B. For given s,ts,t, what is the spectrum of possible values for r(A,B,B)r(A,B,B)? In the special case A=BA=B, the additive triple is called a Schur triple. Various authors have given bounds on the number r(A,A,A)r(A,A,A) of Schur triples, and shown that the lower and upper bound can each be attained by a set AA that is an interval of ss consecutive elements of Zp\mathbb{Z}_p. However, there are values of p,sp,s for which not every value between the lower and upper bounds is attainable. We consider here the general case where A,BA,B can be distinct. We use Pollard's generalization of the Cauchy-Davenport Theorem to derive bounds on the number r(A,B,B)r(A,B,B) of additive triples. In contrast to the case A=BA=B, we show that every value of r(A,B,B)r(A,B,B) from the lower bound to the upper bound is attainable: each such value can be attained when BB is an interval of tt consecutive elements of Zp\mathbb{Z}_p.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2405.04638,
  title  = {Additive triples in groups of odd prime order},
  author = {Sophie Huczynska and Jonathan Jedwab and Laura Johnson},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2405.04638},
  year   = {2024}
}

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10 pages