English

Bohr topology and difference sets for some abelian groups

Dynamical Systems 2017-11-07 v5 Combinatorics Number Theory

Abstract

For a fixed prime pp, Fp\mathbb F_{p} denotes the field with pp elements, and Fpω\mathbb F_{p}^{\omega} denotes the countable direct sum n=1Fp\bigoplus_{n=1}^{\infty} \mathbb F_{p}. Viewing Fpω\mathbb F_{p}^{\omega} as a countable abelian group, we construct a set AFpωA\subseteq \mathbb F_{p}^{\omega} having positive upper Banach density while the difference set AA:={ab:a,bA}A-A:=\{a-b:a,b\in A\} does not contain a Bohr neighborhood of any cFpωc\in \mathbb F_{p}^{\omega}. For p=2p=2 we obtain a stronger conclusion: AAA-A does not contain a set of the form g+(BB)g+(B-B), where BB is piecewise syndetic. This construction answers negatively a variant of the following question asked by several authors: if AZA\subseteq \mathbb Z has positive upper Banach density, must AAA-A contain a Bohr neighborhood of some nZn\in \mathbb Z? We also construct sets S,AFpωS, A\subseteq \mathbb F_{p}^{\omega} such that SS is dense in the Bohr topology of Fpω\mathbb F_{p}^{\omega}, AA has positive upper Banach density, and A+SA+S is not piecewise Bohr. For p=2p=2 we show that every translate of SS is a set of topological recurrence and A+SA+S is not piecewise syndetic. These constructions answer a variant of a question asked by the author.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1608.01014,
  title  = {Bohr topology and difference sets for some abelian groups},
  author = {John T. Griesmer},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1608.01014},
  year   = {2017}
}

Comments

24 Pages, 1 figure. Comments welcome! Revision 5: major revision. Proofs significantly simplified, p=2 case considered separately, with stronger results

R2 v1 2026-06-22T15:10:36.413Z