English

Product mixing in the alternating group

Group Theory 2017-02-14 v4 Combinatorics

Abstract

We prove the following one-sided product-mixing theorem for the alternating group: Given subsets X,Y,ZAnX,Y,Z \subset A_n of densities α,β,γ\alpha,\beta,\gamma satisfying min(αβ,αγ,βγ)n1(logn)7\min(\alpha\beta,\alpha\gamma,\beta\gamma)\gg n^{-1}(\log n)^7, there are at least (1+o(1))αβγAn2 (1+o(1))\alpha\beta\gamma |A_n|^2 solutions to xy=zxy=z with xX,yY,zZx\in X, y\in Y, z\in Z. One consequence is that the largest product-free subset of AnA_n has density at most n1/2(logn)7/2n^{-1/2}(\log n)^{7/2}, which is best possible up to logarithms and improves the best previous bound of n1/3n^{-1/3} due to Gowers. The main tools are a Fourier-analytic reduction noted by Ellis and Green to a problem just about the standard representation, a Brascamp--Lieb-type inequality for the symmetric group due to Carlen, Lieb, and Loss, and a concentration of measure result for rearrangements of inner products.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1512.03517,
  title  = {Product mixing in the alternating group},
  author = {Sean Eberhard},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1512.03517},
  year   = {2017}
}

Comments

19 pages. Reformatted for Discrete Analysis but otherwise identical to the previous version

R2 v1 2026-06-22T12:06:59.389Z