Restriction and Kakeya phenomena for finite fields

From MaRDI portal



Abstract: The restriction and Kakeya problems in Euclidean space have received much attention in the last few decades, and are related to many problems in harmonic analysis, PDE, and number theory. In this paper we initiate the study of these problems on finite fields. The restriction problem then becomes a question about general bounds for certain types of exponential sums, while the Kakeya problem has an algebraic geometry flavor, asking for the extent to which lines in different directions can overlap. In many cases the Euclidean arguments carry over easily to the finite setting (and are in fact somewhat cleaner), but there are some new phenomena in the finite case which deserve closer study.


A Besicovitch set (or Kakeya set) is a set which contains a unit line segment in each direction. The Kakeya conjecture is: does a Besicovitch set in \(\mathbb R^n\) must have Hausdorff dimension \(n\)? A typical restriction theorem is the Tomas-Stein inequality \[ \| \mathcal F^{-1}(fd\sigma)\| _{L^2(n+1)/(n-1)}(\mathbb R^n) \leq C_n\| f\| _{L^2(S^{n-1})}, \] where \(f\) is an \(L^2\)-function on the sphere \(S^{n-1}\) and \(d\sigma\) is a surface measure on the sphere. These restriction and Kakeya phenomena in the Euclidean space have been intensively studied. The authors investigate these restriction and Kakeya phenomena in the vector spaces \(F^n\) over a finite field \(F\) of characteristic greater than \(2\). They mention that the finite field case serves as a good model for the Euclidean case in that many of the technical difficulties ( such as small angle issues, small separation issues, etc.) are eliminated, although certain tools in the Euclidean space are not available (e.g., Taylor series approximation, combinatorial arguments based on the ordering of \(\mathbb R\)).



Cites work


Cited in
(64)








This page was built for publication: Restriction and Kakeya phenomena for finite fields

Report a bug (only for logged in users!)Click here to report a bug for this page (MaRDI item Q1880948)