English

Stability result for sets with $3A\ne{\mathbb Z}_5^n$

Number Theory 2016-03-30 v3 Combinatorics

Abstract

As an easy corollary of Kneser's Theorem, if AA is a subset of the elementary abelian group Z5n{\mathbb Z}_5^n of density 5nA>0.45^{-n}|A|>0.4, then 3A=Z5n3A={\mathbb Z}_5^n. We establish the complementary stability result: if 5nA>0.35^{-n}|A|>0.3 and 3AZ5n3A\ne{\mathbb Z}_5^n, then AA is contained in a union of two cosets of an index-55 subgroup of Z5n{\mathbb Z}_5^n. Here the density bound 0.30.3 is sharp. Our argument combines combinatorial reasoning with a somewhat non-standard application of the character sum technique.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1602.06715,
  title  = {Stability result for sets with $3A\ne{\mathbb Z}_5^n$},
  author = {Vsevolod F. Lev},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1602.06715},
  year   = {2016}
}

Comments

Typo fixed, otherwise identical to the previous version

R2 v1 2026-06-22T12:54:57.446Z