The structure of large sum-free sets in \mathbb{F}_p^n

Abstract: A set

A s u b s e t m a t h b b F_{p}^{n}

is sum-free if

A + A

does not intersect

A

. If

p e q u i v 2 m o d 3

, the maximal size of a sum-free in

m a t h b b F_{p}^{n}

is known to be

(p^{n} + p^{n - 1}) / 3

. We show that if a sum-free set

A s u b s e t m a t h b b F_{p}^{n}

has size at least

p^{n} / 3 - p^{n - 1} / 6 + p^{n - 2}

, then there exists subspace

V < m a t h b b F_{p}^{n}

of co-dimension 1 such that

A

is contained in

(p + 1) / 3

cosets of

V

. For

p = 5

specifically, we show the stronger result that every sum-free set of size larger than

1.2 c d o t 5^{n - 1}

has this property, thus improving on a recent theorem of Lev.

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