English

Inversion and subspaces of a finite field

Rings and Algebras 2017-08-29 v2

Abstract

Let AA and BB two FqF_q-subspaces of a finite field, of the same size, and let A1A^{-1} denote the set of inverses of the nonzero elements of AA. Mattarei proved that A1A^{-1} can only be contained in AA if either AA is a subfield, or AA is the set of trace zero elements in a quadratic extension of a field. Csajb\'{o}k refined this to the following quantitative statement: if A1⊈BA^{-1}\not\subseteq B, then the bound A1B2B/q2|A^{-1}\cap B|\le 2|B|/q-2 holds. He also gave examples showing that his bound is sharp for Bq3|B|\le q^3. Our main result is a proof of the stronger bound A1BB/q(1+Od(q1/2))|A^{-1}\cap B|\le |B|/q\cdot\bigl(1+O_d(q^{-1/2})\bigr), for B=qd|B|=q^d with d>3d>3. We also classify all examples with Bq3|B|\le q^3 which attain equality in Csajb\'{o}k's bound.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1311.3644,
  title  = {Inversion and subspaces of a finite field},
  author = {Sandro Mattarei},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1311.3644},
  year   = {2017}
}

Comments

20 pages. Changes from previous version: added comment on similar bound for A and B affine subspaces, in Section 2; added Remark 11, and Reference, on alternate approach to when Csajbok's bound is attained for |B|=q^3, via facts from finite geometries. Version submitted for publication