Polynomial growth of sumsets in abelian semigroups (Q558129)

Let \(S\) be an abelian semigroup, and \(A\) a finite subset of \(S\). For \(h\in\mathbb{N}\) the sumset \(hA\) consists of all sums of \(h\) elements of \(A\), with repetitions allowed. Let \(|h\,A|\) denote the cardinality of \(h\,A\). The purpose of this note is to give elementary combinatorial proofs of theorems of \textit{A. G. Khovanskii} [Funct. Anal. Appl. 26, No. 4, 276--281 (1992; Zbl 0809.13012); Funct. Anal. Appl. 29, No. 2, 102--112 (1995; Zbl 0855.13011)] and of \textit{M. B. Nathanson} [Am. Math. Mon. 79, 1010--1012 (1972; Zbl 0251.10002); Semigroup Forum 61, No. 149--153 (2000; Zbl 0959.20055)] that avoid the use of Hilbert polynomials. Here by lattice point arguments the following theorem is proved: There exists a polynomial \(p(t)\) such that \(|h\,A|=p(h)\) for all sufficiently large \(h\). Further is shown an analogous result for \(r\) nonempty subsets \(A_1,\dots,A_r\) of \(S\).