English

An inverse theorem for Freiman multi-homomorphisms

Combinatorics 2021-09-08 v3

Abstract

Let G1,,GkG_1, \dots, G_k and HH be vector spaces over a finite field Fp\mathbb{F}_p of prime order. Let AG1××GkA \subset G_1 \times\dots\times G_k be a set of size δG1Gk\delta |G_1| \cdots |G_k|. Let a map ϕ ⁣:AH\phi \colon A \to H be a multi-homomorphism, meaning that for each direction d[k]d \in [k], and each element (x1,,xd1,xd+1,,xk)(x_1, \dots, x_{d-1}, x_{d+1}, \dots, x_k) of G1××Gd1×Gd+1××GkG_1\times\dots\times G_{d-1}\times G_{d+1}\times \dots\times G_k, the map that sends each ydy_d such that (x1,,(x_1, \dots, xd1,x_{d-1}, yd,y_d, xd+1,,x_{d+1}, \dots, xk)Ax_k) \in A to ϕ(x1,,\phi(x_1, \dots, xd1,x_{d-1}, yd,y_d, xd+1,,x_{d+1}, \dots, xk)x_k) is a Freiman homomorphism (of order 2). In this paper, we prove that for each such map, there is a multiaffine map Φ ⁣:G1××GkH\Phi \colon G_1 \times\dots\times G_k \to H such that ϕ=Φ\phi = \Phi on a set of density (exp(Ok(1))(Ok,p(δ1)))1\Big(\exp^{(O_k(1))}(O_{k,p}(\delta^{-1}))\Big)^{-1}, where exp(t)\exp^{(t)} denotes the tt-fold exponential. Applications of this theorem include: \bullet a quantitative inverse theorem for approximate polynomials mapping GG to HH, for finite-dimensional Fp\mathbb{F}_p-vector spaces GG and HH, in the high-characteristic case, \bullet a quantitative inverse theorem for uniformity norms over finite fields in the high-characteristic case, and \bullet a quantitative structure theorem for dense subsets of G1××GkG_1 \times\dots\times G_k that are subspaces in the principal directions (without additional characteristic assumptions).

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2002.11667,
  title  = {An inverse theorem for Freiman multi-homomorphisms},
  author = {W. T. Gowers and L. Milićević},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2002.11667},
  year   = {2021}
}

Comments

191 pages, significantly improved exposition

R2 v1 2026-06-23T13:54:58.709Z