The supremum of autoconvolutions, with applications to additive number theory

Special sequences and polynomials (11B83) Inverse problems of additive number theory, including sumsets (11P70) Convolution, factorization for one variable harmonic analysis (42A85)

Abstract: We adapt a number-theoretic technique of Yu to prove a purely analytic theorem: if f(x) is in L^1 and L^2, is nonnegative, and is supported on an interval of length I, then the supremum of the convolution f*f is at least 0.631 | f |_1^2 / I. This improves the previous bound of 0.591389 | f |_1^2 / I. Consequently, we improve the known bounds on several related number-theoretic problems. For a subset A of {1,2, ..., n}, let g be the maximum multiplicity of any element of the multiset {a+b: a,b in A}. Our main corollary is the inequality gn>0.631|A|^2, which holds uniformly for all g, n, and A.

Review text

Let the autoconvolution of \(f\) be defined as \(f^{*2}(x)=f*f(x):=\int_{\mathbb{R}}f(y)f(x-y)dy\), and for \(h>2\), let \(f^{*h}=f^{*(h-1)}*f\) be the \(h-\)fold autoconvolution. The main theorem of the paper under review shows the bound \(\|f^{*h}\|_{\infty}>\frac{1.262}{hI}\|f\|_1^h\) for \(f\in L^1(\mathbb{R})\cup L^2(\mathbb{R})\) and \(f\) nonnegative and supported on an interval of length \(I\), and for even positive integers \(h\). This result has various consequences, and improves some known results in continuous Ramsey theory and additive number theory. First corollary asserts that every Lebesgue measurable subset of \([0,1]\) with measure \(\varepsilon\) contains a centrally symmetric subset with measure \(0.631\varepsilon^2\). Note that the set \(S\) is centrally symmetric if \(S=c-S\) for some real number \(c\). As the second corollary, which is a rephrase of above mentioned discrete results, the authors show that if \(A\subseteq\{1,2,\dots,n\}\) is a \(B^*[g]\) set, then \(|A|<1.258883\sqrt{gn}\). We call the set \(A\) a \(B^*[g]\) set if no element of the multiset \(A+A=\{a_1+a_2:a_i\in A\}\) has multiplicity greater than \(g\). In this connection, the authors also show that if \(A\subseteq\{1,2,\dots,n\}\) has cardinality at least \(\varepsilon n\), then there is an element \(s\in A+A\) with multiplicity greater than \(0.631\varepsilon^2n\). The next corollary gives the bound \(R(p)>0.631\), where \(p\) is a polynomial with nonnegative real coefficients, \(R(p)=H(p^2)(\deg(p)+1)/p(1)^2\), and \(H(q)\) denotes the height of the polynomial \(q\). Authors use a method involving Fourier coefficients corresponding to a period smaller than \(1\). They develop required kernel functions and their required properties in section 2, and in the next section they prove their main theorem. Finally, they prove above mentioned applications and corollaries, and they end their work by giving some open problems in the subject of paper.

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