On the few products, many sums problem (Q2199504)

Let \(A\) be a finite set of real/complex numbers. Two of the main results of the paper say that (i) \(|A-A|^3\cdot |AA|^5\gg |A|^{10}/\log^{1/2}|A|\), (ii) if \(|AA|\le m|A|\) then \(E(A)\ll m^{8/5}|A|^{49/20}\log^{1/5}|A|\), where \(E(A)=\sum_x r^2_{A\pm A}(x)\) is the additive energy and \(r_{A\pm A}(x)=|\{(a,b)\in A\times A : a\pm b=x\}|\). Estimate (i) remains true if we replace \(AA\) by \(A/A\). If in (ii) we have \(m=1\) then the conclusion is true also for multiplicative subgroups \(\Gamma\subset \mathbb{F}^\times_p\) satisfying \(|\Gamma|\le \sqrt{p}\) (this reproves a result proved by the third author and \textit{I. V. V'yugin} [Sb. Math. 203, No. 6, 844--863 (2012; Zbl 1293.11018)]. They also prove (Theorem 6.5) an improved upper bound for \(E(\Gamma)\) if \(\Gamma\) is a multiplicative subgroups of \(\mathbb{F}^\times_p\) with \(p^{1/2}\le |\Gamma|\le p^{2/3}\) with help of which they prove a new estimate for the maximum gap \(H_p(t)\le p^{437/480 =o(1)}\) between elements of cosets of \(\Gamma\) for \(t\ge p^{1/2}\) and \(p\to\infty\). The proofs uses geometric incidence bounds from the Szemerédi-Trotter theorem as well as combinatorial arguments.