Related papers: On the Structure of Sets with Few Three-Term Arith…

Given a density t in (0,1], and a prime p, let S be any subset of F_p having at least tp elements, and having the least number of three-term arithmetic progressions mod p among all subsets of F_p with at least tp elements. Define N(t,p) to…

Assuming the well-known conjecture that [x,x+x^t] contains a prime for t > 0 and x sufficiently large, we prove: For 0 < r < 1, there exists 0 < s < r < 1, 0 < d < 1, and infinitely many primes q such that if S is a subset of Z/qZ having…

Let A be a subset of $\F_p^n$, the $n$-dimensional linear space over the prime field $\F_p$ of size at least $\de N$ $(N=p^n)$, and let $S_v=P^{-1}(v)$ be the level set of a homogeneous polynomial map $P:\F_p^n\to\F_p^R$ of degree $d$, and…

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,…

In this paper we prove a basic theorem which says that if f : F_p^n -> [0,1] has the property that ||f^||_(1/3) is not too ``large''(actually, it also holds for quasinorms 1/2-\delta in place of 1/3), and E(f) = p^{-n} sum_m f(m) is not too…

In this paper we prove: If 0 < d < 1, and p is a sufficiently large prime, then if S is a subset of Z/pZ having the least number of three-term arithmetic progressions among all subsets of Z/pZ having at least dp elements, then S has an…

Fix a prime p and a density 0 < d <= 1. Among all functions f : F_p -> [0,1], what can one say about those which assign minimal weight to three-term arithmetic progressions -- that is, the sum of f(a)f(a+x)f(a+2x) is minimal as we sum over…

We show that if a finite point set $P\subseteq \mathbb{R}^2$ has the fewest congruence classes of triangles possible, up to a constant $M$, then at least one of the following holds. (1) There is a $\sigma>0$ and a line $l$ which contains…

A set of points with finite density is constructed in $\mathbb{R}^d$, with $d\geq2$, by adding points to a Poisson process such that any line segment of length $O\left(\varepsilon^{-(d-1)}\ln\varepsilon^{-1}\right)$ in $\mathbb{R}^d$ will…

Fix a prime $p\geq 11$. We show that there exists a positive integer $m$ such that any subset of $\mathbb{F}_p^n\times\mathbb{F}_p^n$ containing no nontrivial configurations of the form $(x,y),(x,y+z),(x,y+2z),(x+z,y)$ must have density…

For a prime $p$, a restricted arithmetic progression in $\mathbb{F}_p^n$ is a triplet of vectors $x, x+a, x+2a$ in which the common difference $a$ is a non-zero element from $\{0,1,2\}^n$. What is the size of the largest $A\subseteq…

Let H stand for the set of homeomorphisms on [0,1]. We prove the following dichotomy for Borel subsets A of [0,1]: either there exists a homeomorphism f in H such that the image f(A) contains no 3-term arithmetic progressions; or, for every…

Let F be a finite union-closed family of sets whose largest set contains n elements. In \cite{Wojcik92}, Wojcik defined the density of F to be the ratio of the average set size of F to n and conjectured that the minimum density over all…

We show that a subset of $\mathbb{F}_{p}^{n}$ of $\mathrm{VC_{2}}$-dimension at most $k$ is well approximated by a union of atoms of a quadratic factor of complexity $(\ell,q)$ (denoting the complexities of the linear and quadratic part,…

We study sets and groups definable in tame expansions of o-minimal structures. Let $\mathcal {\widetilde M}= \langle \mathcal M, P\rangle$ be an expansion of an o-minimal $\mathcal L$-structure $\cal M$ by a dense set $P$, such that three…

Bourgain and Chang recently showed that any subset of $\mathbb{F}_p$ of density $\gg p^{-1/15}$ contains a nontrivial progression $x,x+y,x+y^2$. We answer a question of theirs by proving that if $P_1,P_2\in\mathbb{Z}[y]$ are linearly…

We prove new lower bounds on the maximum size of sets $A\subseteq \mathbb{F}_p^n$ or $A\subseteq \mathbb{Z}_m^n$ not containing three-term arithmetic progressions (consisting of three distinct points). More specifically, we prove that for…

We show that for some constant $\beta > 0$, any subset $A$ of integers $\{1,\ldots,N\}$ of size at least $2^{-O((\log N)^\beta)} \cdot N$ contains a non-trivial three-term arithmetic progression. Previously, three-term arithmetic…

We study the following generalization of Roth's theorem for 3-term arithmetic progressions. For s>1, define a nontrivial s-configuration to be a set of s(s+1)/2 integers consisting of s distinct integers x_1,...,x_s as well as all the…

The main motivation for this article is to explore the connections between the existence of certain combinatorial patterns (as in van der Corputs's theorem on arithmetic progressions of length $3$) with well-known tools and theorems for…