English

Packing sets under finite groups via algebraic incidence structures

Combinatorics 2026-02-10 v4 Group Theory Number Theory

Abstract

Let GG be a finite group acting on a vector space V=FpnV = \mathbb{F}_p^n over a prime field. Given finite sets SGS \subset G and EVE \subset V, we study the restricted orbit union S(E)=gSg(E)S(E) = \bigcup_{g\in S} g(E) and establish quantitative lower bounds for S(E)|S(E)| in terms of S|S|, E|E|, and natural structural conditions. This finite field packing problem has connections to distance geometry, configuration counting, and expanding graphs. For G=SL2(Fp)G = SL_2(\mathbb{F}_p) acting on Fp2\mathbb{F}_p^2, we prove that S(E)min{p2,SEp2},|S(E)| \gg \min\left\lbrace p^2, \frac{|S||E|}{p^2}\right\rbrace, which is sharp. Under geometric non-concentration conditions on EE and subgroup-avoidance hypotheses on SS, we obtain a power-saving improvement of the form S(E)min{p2, max{SEpk, S12Ep1ϵ2k12}},|S(E)|\gg \min \left\lbrace p^2, ~\max\left\lbrace\frac{|S||E|}{pk}, ~\frac{|S|^{\frac{1}{2}}|E|}{p^{\frac{1-\epsilon}{2}}k^{\frac{1}{2}}}\right\rbrace \right\rbrace, where kk bounds the radial multiplicity of EE. For small sets Ep|E| \leq p, we establish optimal bounds using weighted incidence theory. Analogous results are proved for the first Heisenberg group H1(Fp)\mathbb{H}_1(\mathbb{F}_p) acting on Fp3\mathbb{F}_p^3. Our approach reformulates the problem as an incidence question in a bipartite action graph. The proofs combine Fourier analytic techniques, energy estimates, point-line incidence bounds, and area-energy inequalities for skew dot products. The methods extend classical sum-product type problems and incidence theory to noncommutative group actions.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2411.05377,
  title  = {Packing sets under finite groups via algebraic incidence structures},
  author = {Norbert Hegyvári and Le Quang Hung and Alex Iosevich and Thang Pham},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2411.05377},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

V4: 34 pages

R2 v1 2026-06-28T19:52:41.502Z