On thin sum-product bases (Q2151181)

For any two subsets \(A\) and \(B\) of a commutative ring, let \(AB\) denote the set of elements \(x\) such that \(x=ab\), where \(a\in A\) and \(b\in B\). Let \(A^2=AA\) and, for \(k>1\), let \(A^k=AA^{k-1}\) with the convention \(A^1=A\). Consider a polynomial \(f\in\mathbb{Z}[x_1,x_2,\ldots,x_d]\) and suppose that \(A\) is contained in a subset \(R\) of the underlying commutative ring. Furthermore, by \(f(A,A,\ldots,A)\) (with \(k\) arguments) we mean the set of all terms \(f(a_1,a_2,\ldots,a_k)\), where \(a_i\in A\), \(i=1,2,\ldots,k\). The set \(A\) is called an \(f\)-sum-product basis for \(R\) if \(f(A,A,\ldots,A)=R\). When \(R\) is finite, the measure of the size of \(A\) is its cardinality \(\vert A\vert \). In this paper, the authors focus on subsets \(A\) of the set \(\mathbb{N}\) of all non-negative integers and on the special polynomials \(x+yz\) and \(xy+zt\). Using probabilistic arguments, they study the existence of thin sets in \(\mathbb{N}\). For instance, one of their typical results can be stated as follows. For \(A\subset\mathbb{N}\) and \(X>0\), let \(A(X)=\vert A\cap [0,X]\vert \) and let \(k\ge 2\) be an integer. Then, there exists an \(A\subset\mathbb{N}\) such that \(A^k+A=\mathbb{N}\) and for all sufficiently large \(X\), we have \(A\ll\sqrt{X}/\log^{\alpha(k)}{X}\), where \(\alpha(k)=\frac{k-2}{k+1}\).