Related papers: Difference Sets and Polynomials

We show that if $h\in \mathbb{Z}[x]$ is a polynomial of degree $k \geq 2$ such that $h(\mathbb{N})$ contains a multiple of $q$ for every $q\in \mathbb{N}$, known as an $\textit{intersective polynomial}$, then any subset of $\{1,2,\dots,N\}$…

We show that if $h\in\mathbb{Z}[x]$ is a polynomial of degree $k$ such that the congruence $h(x)\equiv0\pmod{q}$ has a solution for every positive integer $q$, then any subset of $\{1,2,\ldots,N\}$ with no two distinct elements with…

We define a necessary and sufficient condition on a polynomial $h\in \mathbb{Z}[x]$ to guarantee that every set of natural numbers of positive upper density contains a nonzero difference of the form $h(p)$ for some prime $p$. Moreover, we…

For $\ell\geq 2$ and $h\in \mathbb{Z}[x_1,\dots,x_{\ell}]$ of degree $k\geq 2$, we show that every set $A\subseteq \{1,2,\dots,N\}$ lacking nonzero differences in $h(\mathbb{Z}^{\ell})$ satisfies $|A|\ll_h Ne^{-c(\log N)^{\mu}}$, where…

Let $P_1,\dots,P_m\in\mathbb{Z}[y]$ be polynomials with distinct degrees, each having zero constant term. We show that any subset $A$ of $\{1,\dots,N\}$ with no nontrivial progressions of the form $x,x+P_1(y),\dots,x+P_m(y)$ has size…

We establish upper bounds on the size of the largest subset of $\{1,2,\dots,N\}$ lacking nonzero differences of the form $h(p_1,\dots,p_{\ell})$, where $h\in \mathbb{Z}[x_1,\dots,x_{\ell}]$ is a fixed polynomial satisfying appropriate…

We prove that a sumset of a TE subset of (\N) (these sets can be viewed as "aperiodic" sets) with a set of positive upper density intersects a set of values of any polynomial with integer coefficients., i.e. for any (A \subset \N ) a TE…

We show that for any set $A \subset \mathbb{N}$ with positive upper density and any $\ell,m \in \mathbb{N}$, there exist an infinite set $B\subset \mathbb{N}$ and some $t\in \mathbb{N}$ so that $\{mb_1 + \ell b_2 \colon b_1,b_2\in B\…

Let $\mathscr{M}_{(2,1)}(N)$ be the infimum of the largest sum-free subset of any set of $N$ positive integers. An old conjecture in additive combinatorics asserts that there is a constant $c=c(2,1)$ and a function $\omega(N)\to\infty$ as…

We extend the best known bound on the largest subset of {1,2,...,N} with no square differences to the largest possible class of quadratic polynomials.

In a previous paper of the authors, we showed that for any polynomials $P_1,\dots,P_k \in \Z[\mathbf{m}]$ with $P_1(0)=\dots=P_k(0)$ and any subset $A$ of the primes in $[N] = \{1,\dots,N\}$ of relative density at least $\delta>0$, one can…

We construct large subsets of the first $N$ positive integers which avoid certain arithmetic configurations. In particular, we construct a set of order $N^{0.7685}$ lacking the configuration $\{x,x+y,x+y^2\},$ surpassing the $N^{3/4}$ limit…

A set of integers is called sum-free if it contains no triple $(x,y,z)$ of not necessarily distinct elements with $x+y=z$. In this paper, we provide a structural characterisation of sum-free subsets of $\{1,2,\ldots,n\}$ of density at least…

We prove new cases of reasonable bounds for the polynomial Szemer\'{e}di theorem both over $\mathbb{Z}/N\mathbb{Z}$ with $N$ prime and over the integers. In particular, we prove reasonable bounds for Szemer\'edi's theorem in the integers…

Addressing a question of Cameron and Erd\Ho s, we show that, for infinitely many values of $n$, the number of subsets of $\{1,2,\ldots, n\}$ that do not contain a $k$-term arithmetic progression is at most $2^{O(r_k(n))}$, where $r_k(n)$ is…

Suppose that f : F_p^n -> [0,1] has expected value t in [p^(-n/9),1] (so, the density t can be quite low!). Furthermore, suppose that support(f) has no three-term arithmetic progressions. Then, we develop non-trivial lower bounds for f_j,…

Let $La(n,P)$ be the maximum size of a family of subsets of $[n]= \{1,2, ..., n \}$ not containing $P$ as a (weak) subposet, and let $h(P)$ be the length of a longest chain in $P$. The best known upper bound for $La(n,P)$ in terms of $|P|$…

In this paper we study sum-free subsets of the set $\{1,...,n\}$, that is, subsets of the first $n$ positive integers which contain no solution to the equation $x + y = z$. Cameron and Erd\H{o}s conjectured in 1990 that the number of such…

We explore from several perspectives the following question: given $X\subseteq \mathbb{Z}$ and $N\in \mathbb{N}$, what is the maximum size $D(X,N)$ of $A\subseteq \{1,2,\dots,N\}$ before $A$ is forced to contain two distinct elements that…

Let $r_k(N)$ denote the size of the largest subset of $[N] = \{1,\ldots,N\}$ with no $k$-term arithmetic progression. We show that for $k\ge 5$, there exists $c_k>0$ such that \[r_k(N)\ll N\exp(-(\log\log N)^{c_k}).\] Our proof is a…