English

Difference bases in finite Abelian groups

Combinatorics 2021-11-01 v2 Group Theory

Abstract

A subset BB of a group GG is called a difference basis of GG if each element gGg\in G can be written as the difference g=ab1g=ab^{-1} of some elements a,bBa,b\in B. The smallest cardinality B|B| of a difference basis BGB\subset G is called the difference size of GG and is denoted by Δ[G]\Delta[G]. The fraction ð[G]:=Δ[G]G\eth[G]:=\frac{\Delta[G]}{\sqrt{|G|}} is called the difference characteristic of GG. Using properies of the Galois rings, we prove recursive upper bounds for the difference sizes and characteristics of finite Abelian groups. In particular, we prove that for a prime number p11p\ge 11, any finite Abelian pp-group GG has difference characteristic ð[G]<p1p3supkNð[Cpk]<2p1p3\eth[G]<\frac{\sqrt{p}-1}{\sqrt{p}-3}\cdot\sup_{k\in\mathbb N}\eth[C_{p^k}]<\sqrt{2}\cdot\frac{\sqrt{p}-1}{\sqrt{p}-3}. Also we calculate the difference sizes of all Abelian groups of cardinality <96<96.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1704.02471,
  title  = {Difference bases in finite Abelian groups},
  author = {Taras Banakh and Volodymyr Gavrylkiv},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1704.02471},
  year   = {2021}
}

Comments

12 pages

R2 v1 2026-06-22T19:11:44.069Z