On the size of subsets of \(\mathbb{F}_p^n\) without \(p\) distinct elements summing to zero (Q2048853)

Let \(p\) be a prime. The Erdős-Ginzburg-Ziv problem asks for the minimum integer \(s\) such that any collection of \(s\) points in the lattice \(\mathbb{Z}_n\) contains \(p\) points whose centroid is also a lattice point in \(\mathbb{Z}_n\). For large \(n\), this is essentially equivalent to asking for the maximum size of a subset of \(\mathbb{F}_p^n\) without \(p\) distinct elements summing to zero. In this paper, the author give a new upper bound for this problem for any fixed prime \(p\geq 5\) and large \(n\). In particular, the author prove that any subset of \(\mathbb{F}_p^n\) without \(p\) distinct elements summing to zero has size at most \(C_p (2 \sqrt{p})^n\), where \(C_p\) is a constant only depending on \(p\). For \(p\) and \(n\) going to infinity, their bound is of the form \(p^{(1/2)\cdot (1+o(1))n}\), whereas all previously known upper bounds were of the form \(p^{(1-o(1))n}\) (with \(p^n\) being a trivial bound). The proof uses the so-called multi-colored sum-free theorem which is a consequence of the Croot-Lev-Pach polynomial method. This method and its consequences were already applied by Naslund as well as by Fox and Sauermann to prove bounds for the problem studied in this paper. However, using some key new ideas, the author significantly improve the previous bounds.