English

Separating subsets from their images

Group Theory 2025-12-23 v2 Combinatorics

Abstract

Let GG be a transitive permutation group acting on Ω\Omega. In this paper, we introduce and study the parameter m(G){\bf m}(G), which denotes the size of the smallest set of points AA such that, for every permutation gGg\in G, AAgA \cap A^g is nonempty. In particular, we focus on deriving general bounds for arbitrary transitive groups, and on the asymptotic behaviour of certain families of primitive groups. We also provide a classification of transitive groups with m(G){\bf m}(G) largest possible, namely with m(G)=(Ω+1)/2{\bf m}(G)=\lceil (|\Omega|+1) / 2 \rceil.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2508.20731,
  title  = {Separating subsets from their images},
  author = {Marco Barbieri and Maruša Lekše and Primož Potočnik and Kamilla Rekvényi},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2508.20731},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

40 pages; Section 7 extended

R2 v1 2026-07-01T05:10:10.203Z