English

Coordinate sum and difference sets of $d$-dimensional modular hyperbolas

Number Theory 2012-12-13 v1

Abstract

Many problems in additive number theory, such as Fermat's last theorem and the twin prime conjecture, can be understood by examining sums or differences of a set with itself. A finite set AZA \subset \mathbb{Z} is considered sum-dominant if A+A>AA|A+A|>|A-A|. If we consider all subsets of 0,1,...,n1{0, 1, ..., n-1}, as nn\to\infty it is natural to expect that almost all subsets should be difference-dominant, as addition is commutative but subtraction is not; however, Martin and O'Bryant in 2007 proved that a positive percentage are sum-dominant as nn\to\infty. This motivates the study of "coordinate sum dominance". Given V(Z/nZ)2V \subset (\Z/n\Z)^2, we call S:=x+y:(x,y)VS:={x+y: (x,y) \in V} a coordinate sumset and D:={xy:(x,y)V}D:=\{x-y: (x,y) \in V\} a coordinate difference set, and we say VV is coordinate sum dominant if S>D|S|>|D|. An arithmetically interesting choice of VV is Hˉ2(a;n)\bar{H}_2(a;n), which is the reduction modulo nn of the modular hyperbola H2(a;n):=(x,y):xyamodn,1x,y<nH_2(a;n) := {(x,y): xy \equiv a \bmod n, 1 \le x,y < n}. In 2009, Eichhorn, Khan, Stein, and Yankov determined the sizes of SS and DD for V=Hˉ2(1;n)V=\bar{H}_2(1;n) and investigated conditions for coordinate sum dominance. We extend their results to reduced dd-dimensional modular hyperbolas Hˉd(a;n)\bar{H}_d(a;n) with aa coprime to nn.

Cite

@article{arxiv.1212.2930,
  title  = {Coordinate sum and difference sets of $d$-dimensional modular hyperbolas},
  author = {Amanda Bower and Ron Evans and Victor Luo and Steven J. Miller},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1212.2930},
  year   = {2012}
}

Comments

Version 1.0, 14 pages, 2 figures

R2 v1 2026-06-21T22:53:29.026Z