An inverse theorem in \(\mathbb{Z}/p\mathbb{Z}\) and rainbow-free colorings (Q1681900)

Let \(p\) be a prime and let \(\mathbb{Z}/p\mathbb{Z}\) denote the set of congruence classes modulo \(p\). An \(n\)-coloring of \(\mathbb{Z}/p\mathbb{Z}\) is a partition of \(\mathbb{Z}/p\mathbb{Z}\) into \(n\) nonempty subsets. A subset of \(\mathbb{Z}/p\mathbb{Z}\) is called rainbow if it contains at least one element from every color class. In this paper the author improves a previous result of \textit{D. Conlon} [Discrete Math. 306, No. 17, 2056--2063 (2006; Zbl 1220.05131)] about the existence of rainbow solutions of linear equations over \(\mathbb{Z}/p\mathbb{Z}\). Namely, he proves that if the set \(\mathbb{Z}/p\mathbb{Z}\) is colored with \(n \ge 3\) different colors such that each color class has at least four elements, then for any nonzero \(a_{1}, \dots, a_{n} \in \mathbb{Z}/p\mathbb{Z}\) with not all of them being equal, and for any \(b \in \mathbb{Z}/p\mathbb{Z}\), there is a rainbow solution of the equation \(\sum_{i=1}^{n}a_{i}x_{i} = b\). The proof uses some results of additive number theory. The key tool is an inverse theorem due to the author.