English

Popular differences and generalized Sidon sets

Number Theory 2020-03-03 v5 Combinatorics

Abstract

For a subset A[N]A \subseteq [N], we define the representation function rAA(d):=#{(a,a)A×A:d=aa} r_{A-A}(d) := \#\{(a,a') \in A \times A : d = a - a'\} and define MD(A):=max1d<DrAA(d)M_D(A) := \max_{1 \leq d < D} r_{A-A}(d) for D>1D>1. We study the smallest possible value of MD(A)M_D(A) as AA ranges over all possible subsets of [N][N] with a given size. We give explicit asymptotic expressions with constant coefficients determined for a large range of DD. We shall also see how this problem connects to a well-known problem about generalized Sidon sets.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1706.05969,
  title  = {Popular differences and generalized Sidon sets},
  author = {Max Wenqiang Xu},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1706.05969},
  year   = {2020}
}

Comments

15 pages, questions added

R2 v1 2026-06-22T20:22:44.911Z