English

Popular differences for right isosceles triangles

Combinatorics 2021-12-06 v3

Abstract

For a subset AA of {1,2,,N}2\{1,2,\ldots,N\}^2 of size αN2\alpha N^2 we show existence of (m,n)(0,0)(m,n)\neq(0,0) such that the set AA contains at least (α3o(1))N2(\alpha^3 - o(1))N^2 triples of points of the form (a,b)(a,b), (a+m,b+n)(a+m,b+n), (an,b+m)(a-n,b+m). This answers a question by Ackelsberg, Bergelson, and Best from arXiv:2101.02811. The same approach also establishes the corresponding result for compact abelian groups. Furthermore, for a finite field Fq\mathbb{F}_q we comment on exponential smallness of subsets of (Fqn)2(\mathbb{F}_q^n)^2 that avoid the aforementioned configuration. The proofs are minor modifications of the existing proofs regarding three-term arithmetic progressions.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2101.12714,
  title  = {Popular differences for right isosceles triangles},
  author = {Vjekoslav Kovač},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2101.12714},
  year   = {2021}
}

Comments

8 pages; v2: a few typos fixed, acknowledgments added; v3: references added, referee's suggestions incorporated

R2 v1 2026-06-23T22:39:51.464Z