English

Mixing for three-term progressions in finite simple groups

Combinatorics 2023-01-11 v2 Group Theory

Abstract

Answering a question of Gowers, Tao proved that any A×B×CSLd(Fq)3A\times B\times C\subset SL_d(\mathbb{F}_q)^3 contains ABC/SLd(Fq)+Od(SLd(Fq)2/qmin(d1,2)/8)|A||B||C|/|SL_d(\mathbb{F}_q)|+O_d(|SL_d(\mathbb{F}_q)|^2/q^{\min(d-1,2)/8}) three-term progressions (x,xy,xy2)(x,xy,xy^2). Using a modification of Tao's argument, we prove such a mixing result for three-term progressions in all nonabelian finite simple groups except for PSL2(Fq)PSL_2(\mathbb{F}_q) with an error term that depends on the degree of quasirandomness of the group. This argument also gives an alternative proof of Tao's result when d>2d>2, but with the error term O(SLd(Fq)2/q(d1)/24)O(|SL_d(\mathbb{F}_q)|^2/q^{(d-1)/24}).

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1612.07385,
  title  = {Mixing for three-term progressions in finite simple groups},
  author = {Sarah Peluse},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1612.07385},
  year   = {2023}
}

Comments

10 pages; v2: fixed a typo

R2 v1 2026-06-22T17:31:44.961Z