English

On sum sets of convex functions

Combinatorics 2021-02-11 v1 Number Theory

Abstract

In this paper we prove new bounds for sums of convex or concave functions. Specifically, we prove that for all A,BRA,B \subseteq \mathbb R finite sets, and for all f,gf,g convex or concave functions, we have A+B38f(A)+g(B)38A49B49.|A + B|^{38}|f(A) + g(B)|^{38} \gtrsim |A|^{49}|B|^{49}. This result can be used to obtain bounds on a number of two-variable expanders of interest, as well as to the asymmetric sum-product problem. We also adjust our technique to also prove the three-variable expansion result AB+AA32+3170. |AB+A|\gtrsim |A|^{\frac32 +\frac3{170}}\,. Our methods follow a series of recent developments in the sum-product literature, presenting a unified picture. Of particular interest is an adaptation of a regularisation technique of Xue, that enables us to find positive proportion subsets with certain desirable properties.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2102.05446,
  title  = {On sum sets of convex functions},
  author = {Sophie Stevens and Audie Warren},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2102.05446},
  year   = {2021}
}

Comments

16 pages plus appendix

R2 v1 2026-06-23T23:01:50.068Z