On arithmetic progressions in symmetric sets in finite field model (Q2200438)

Summary: We consider two problems regarding arithmetic progressions in symmetric sets in the finite field (product space) model. First, we show that a symmetric set \(S \subseteq \mathbb{Z}_q^n\) containing \(|S| = \mu \cdot q^n\) elements must contain at least \(\delta(q, \mu) \cdot q^n \cdot 2^n\) arithmetic progressions \(x, x+d, \ldots, x+(q-1)\cdot d\) such that the difference \(d\) is restricted to lie in \(\{0,1\}^n\). Second, we show that for prime \(p\) a symmetric set \(S\subseteq\mathbb{F}_p^n\) with \(|S|=\mu\cdot p^n\) elements contains at least \(\mu^{C(p)}\cdot p^{2n}\) arithmetic progressions of length \(p\). This establishes that the qualitative behavior of longer arithmetic progressions in symmetric sets is the same as for progressions of length three.