The higher regularity of the discrete Hardy-Littlewood maximal function

In a recent short note the first author gave the first positive result on the higher order regularity of the discrete noncentered Hardy-Littlewood maximal function. In this article we conduct a thorough investigation of possible similar results for higher order derivatives. We uncover that such results are indeed a consequence of a stronger phenomenon regarding the growth of $l^p(\Z)$ norms of the derivatives of characteristic functions of finite subsets of $\Z$. Along the way we discover very interesting connections to Prouhot-Tarry-Escott (PTE) problem, and to zeros of complex polynomials with restricted coefficients (Littlewood-type polynomials).