Related papers: A sum-product estimate in finite fields, and appli…
An analog of the Falconer distance problem in vector spaces over finite fields asks for the threshold $\alpha>0$ such that $|\Delta(E)| \gtrsim q$ whenever $|E| \gtrsim q^{\alpha}$, where $E \subset {\Bbb F}_q^d$, the $d$-dimensional vector…
Given $d \in \mathbb{N}$, we establish sum-product estimates for finite, non-empty subsets of $\mathbb{R}^d$. This is equivalent to a sum-product result for sets of diagonal matrices. In particular, let $A$ be a finite, non-empty set of $d…
For a bivariate $P(x,y) \in \mathbb{R}[x,y]\setminus (\mathbb{R}[x] \cup \mathbb{R}[y])$, our first result shows that for all finite $A \subseteq \mathbb{R}$, $|P(A,A)|\geq \alpha|A|^{5/4}$ with $\alpha =\alpha(\mathrm{deg} P) \in…
Let $A\subset [1, 2]$ be a $(\delta, \sigma)$-set with measure $|A|=\delta^{1-\sigma}$ in the sense of Katz and Tao. For $\sigma\in (1/2, 1)$ we show that $$ |A+A|+|AA|\gtrapprox \delta^{-c}|A|, $$ for…
Let $\mathbb{F}_q$ be an arbitrary finite field, and $\mathcal{E}$ be a set of points in $\mathbb{F}_q^d$. Let $\Delta(\mathcal{E})$ be the set of distances determined by pairs of points in $\mathcal{E}$. By using the Kloosterman sums,…
Let $\mathbb{F}_q$ be a finite field of order $q$, where $q$ is a power of a prime. For a set $A \subset \mathbb{F}_q$, under certain structural restrictions, we prove a new explicit lower bound on the size of the product set $A(A + 1)$.…
The first part is expository: it explains how finite fields may be used to prove theorems on infinite fields by a reduction mod p process. The second part gives a variant of P.Smith's fixed point theorem which applies in any characteristic.
Let $R$ be a finite valuation ring of order $q^r.$ Using a point-plane incidence estimate in $R^3$, we obtain sum-product type estimates for subsets of $R$. In particular, we prove that for $A\subset R$, $$|AA+A|\gg \min\left\{q^{r},…
An analog of the Falconer distance problem in vector spaces over finite fields asks for the threshold $\alpha>0$ such that $|\Delta(E)| \gtrsim q$ whenever $|E| \gtrsim q^{\alpha}$, where $E \subset {\Bbb F}_q^d$, the $d$-dimensional vector…
Can any element in a sufficiently large finite field be represented as a sum of two $d$th powers in the field? In this article, we recount some of the history of this problem, touching on cyclotomy, Fermat's last theorem, and diagonal…
We explore variants of Erd\H os' unit distance problem concerning dot products between successive pairs of points chosen from a large finite subset of either $\mathbb F_q^d$ or $\mathbb Z_q^d,$ where $q$ is a power of an odd prime.…
Let $k$ be a finite field extension of the function field $\bfF_p(T)$ and $\bar{k}$ its algebraic closure. We count points in projective space $\Bbb P ^{n-1}(\bar{k})$ with given height and of fixed degree $d$ over the field $k$. If…
We show that for any sequence $f: {\bf N} \to \{-1,+1\}$ taking values in $\{-1,+1\}$, the discrepancy $$ \sup_{n,d \in {\bf N}} \left|\sum_{j=1}^n f(jd)\right| $$ of $f$ is infinite. This answers a question of Erd\H{o}s. In fact the…
We introduce the theory $\mathrm{PF}^{+,\times}$ of pseudofinite fields with generic additive and multiplicative character added as continuous logic predicates. Using the Weil bounds on character sums over finite fields as well as the…
This is an expository survey on recent sum-product results in finite fields. We present a number of sum-product or "expander" results that say that if $|A| > p^{2/3}$ then some set determined by sums and product of elements of $A$ is nearly…
We prove that if $A \subset {\Bbb F}_q$ is such that $$|A|>q^{{1/2}+\frac{1}{2d}},$$ then $${\Bbb F}_q^{*} \subset dA^2=A^2+...+A^2 d \text{times},$$ where $$A^2=\{a \cdot a': a,a' \in A\},$$ and where ${\Bbb F}_q^{*}$ denotes the…
We bound double sums of Kloosterman sums over a finite field ${\mathbb F}_{q}$, with one or both parameters ranging over an affine space over its prime subfield ${\mathbb F}_p \subseteq {\mathbb F}_{q} $. These are finite fields analogues…
Let $A$ and $B$ be finite subsets of $\mathbb{C}$ such that $|B|=C|A|$. We show the following variant of the sum product phenomenon: If $|AB|<\alpha|A|$ and $\alpha \ll \log |A|$, then $|kA+lB|\gg |A|^k|B|^l$. This is an application of a…
Let $\mathbb{F}_q$ be a finite field. Given two irreducible polynomials $f,g$ over $\mathbb{F}_q$, with $\mathrm{deg} f$ dividing $\mathrm{deg} g$, the finite field embedding problem asks to compute an explicit description of a field…
Let $\mathbb{F}_p$ be a prime field, and ${\mathcal E}$ a set in $\mathbb{F}_p^2$. Let $\Delta({\mathcal E})=\{||x-y||: x,y \in {\mathcal E} \}$, the distance set of ${\mathcal E}$. In this paper, we provide a quantitative connection…