English

Restricted sumsets in multiplicative subgroups

Number Theory 2026-04-22 v2 Combinatorics

Abstract

We establish the restricted sumset analogue of the celebrated conjecture of S\'{a}rk\"{o}zy on additive decompositions of the set of nonzero squares over a finite field. More precisely, we show that if q>13q>13 is an odd prime power, then the set of nonzero squares in Fq\mathbb{F}_q cannot be written as a restricted sumset A+^AA \hat{+} A, extending a result of Shkredov. More generally, we study restricted sumsets in multiplicative subgroups over finite fields as well as restricted sumsets in perfect powers (over integers) motivated by a question of Erd\H{o}s and Moser. We also prove an analogue of van Lint-MacWilliams' conjecture for restricted sumsets, which appears to be the first analogue of Erd\H{o}s-Ko-Rado theorem in a family of Cayley sum graphs.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2309.10950,
  title  = {Restricted sumsets in multiplicative subgroups},
  author = {Chi Hoi Yip},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2309.10950},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

23 pages,revised based on referee comments

R2 v1 2026-06-28T12:26:40.940Z