On the critical pair theory in abelian groups: beyond Chowla's theorem (Q1046731)

The Cauchy-Davenport theorem, concerning the addition of residue classes, was generalized to cyclic groups by \textit{S. Chowla} [Proc. Indian Acad. Sci. 2, 242--243 (1935; Zbl 0012.24701 and JFM 61.0149.03)]. Chowla's theorem states: Let \(S,T\) be non-empty subsets of \(\mathbb Z/n \mathbb Z\), let \(0 \in S\), and assume that every element of \(S \setminus \{0\}\) has exact order \(n\). Then the number \(| T+S| \) of elements in \(T+S\) is \( \; \geq \min (n, | S| + | T| - 1)\). Critical pairs are subsets \(S_c,\, T_c\), for which equality occurs in the equation above, \( | T_c+S_c| = \min (n, | S_c| + | T_c| - 1)\). For example, Vosper's theorem gives the critical pairs in the Cauchy-Davenport theorem. Hamidoune and Rødseth proved: Let \(S, T \subset \mathbb Z/ p\mathbb Z\), \(| T| \geq 3,\; | S| \geq 4\), and \(| S+T| = | S| + | T| \leq p-4\). Then \(S, T\) are included in arithmetic progressions with the same difference and of lengths \(| S| +1\) and \(| T| +1\). The authors' main result generalizes this result to abelian groups, hereby improving on the theorems of Chowla and of Voster: Let \(0\in S\) be a generating subset of a finite abelian group \(G\), where \(\gcd(| G| ,6)=1\) and \(4 \leq | S| \leq | G| -7\). Assume that \(S\) is 3--separable (that means that there exists an \(X \subset G\) such that \(| X| \geq 3\) and \(| X+S| \leq | G| - 3\)), and that \[ \kappa_3(S) \overset\text{def} =\min\Bigl\{ | X+S| -| X| ;\, X \subset G, \, | X| \geq 3, \text{ and } | X+S| \leq | G| - k\Bigr\} = | S| . \] If every element of \(S\setminus \{0\}\) has order \(\geq | S| +1\), then either \(S\) is a quasi-progression or \(S \setminus \{0\}\) is quasi-periodic. Here, a quasi-periodic set is one which can be obtained by deleting one element from a periodic set; \(S\) is a periodic set if there is some non-trivial subgroup \(H\) such that \(S+H=S\). A quasi-progression can be obtained by deleting one element of an arithmetic progression. A second main-theorem describes the critical pairs for a finite abelian group \(G\) with \(\gcd(| G| ,6) = 1\), a generating subset \(S\), where \(0\in S\) and \(| S| \geq 4\), and where every element in \(S^\ast\) has order \(\geq | S| +1\), and for a subset \(T \subset G\), where \(| T| \geq 3\), satisfying \[ | S+T| = | S| + | T| \qquad \Bigl[ \leq | G| - 4 \Bigr]. \] For the proofs a thorough study of ``\(k\)-atoms'' and of a so-called ``fainting technique'' is necessary.