English

Two dimensional arithmetic progressions avoiding squares

Number Theory 2026-05-13 v1

Abstract

We show that any proper symmetric two dimensional arithmetic progression contained in the interval [T,T][-T,T] which avoids non-zero perfect squares has at most Oε(T20/27+ε)O_\varepsilon(T^{20/27+\varepsilon}) elements. This improves on a result of Croot, Lyall and Rice. We also discuss lower bounds for this problem and their connections to bounds for the least quadratic non-residue modulo a prime.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2605.11104,
  title  = {Two dimensional arithmetic progressions avoiding squares},
  author = {Rainer Dietmann and Christian Elsholtz},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2605.11104},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

10 pages, to appear in Proc. Amer. Math. Soc