Direct and inverse problems in additive number theory and in non-abelian group theory (Q402459)

Let \(A\) be a finite set of integers or of elements from some abstract groups. Minkowski sums of dilates are defined as follows: \(r_1*A+\cdots +r_s*A=\{r_1x_1+\cdots+r_sx_s: x_i\in A, 1\leq i\leq s\}\) where \(r_1,\ldots,r_s\) are positive integers. To determine the lower bound for the Minkowski sums of dilates is called the direct problem. While, the associated (ordinary) inverse problem is to characterize the structure of the extremal sets with respect to the obtained sharp lower bound, furthermore, the (extended) inverse problem will refer to inverse problems in which a small diversion from the exact bound is allowed, still enabling us to reach a definite conclusion concerning the structure of \(A\). The problems associated with the Minkowski sums of dilates are central topics in additive number theory and have been studied extensively in the past several decades, in particular, the direct problem and inverse problem concerning the basic case \(A+r*A\). In this paper, the authors obtain some new direct and inverse results for Minkowski sums of dilates and apply them to solve certain direct and inverse problems in Baumslag-Solitar groups, assuming appropriate small doubling properties. In particular, they obtain a uniform lower bound \(|A+r*A|\geq 4|A|-4\) for \(r\geq 3\), which does not follow from the previous result obtained by \textit{Y. O. Hamidoune} and \textit{J. Rué} [Comb. Probab. Comput. 20, No. 2, 249--256 (2011; Zbl 1231.11013)]: \(|n*A+m*A|\geq 4|A|-4\) with \(2\leq n<m\) and \(m,n\) are coprime.