English

Three-term polynomial progressions in subsets of finite fields

Number Theory 2023-01-09 v2 Combinatorics

Abstract

Bourgain and Chang recently showed that any subset of Fp\mathbb{F}_p of density p1/15\gg p^{-1/15} contains a nontrivial progression x,x+y,x+y2x,x+y,x+y^2. We answer a question of theirs by proving that if P1,P2Z[y]P_1,P_2\in\mathbb{Z}[y] are linearly independent and satisfy P1(0)=P2(0)=0P_1(0)=P_2(0)=0, then any subset of Fp\mathbb{F}_p of density P1,P2p1/24\gg_{P_1,P_2}p^{-1/24} contains a nontrivial polynomial progression x,x+P1(y),x+P2(y)x,x+P_1(y),x+P_2(y).

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1707.05977,
  title  = {Three-term polynomial progressions in subsets of finite fields},
  author = {Sarah Peluse},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1707.05977},
  year   = {2023}
}

Comments

21 pages; v2: minor exposition changes based on referee comments

R2 v1 2026-06-22T20:51:22.475Z