On the distribution of the residues of small multiplicative subgroups of \(\mathbb F_p\) (Q731356)

In this article the author obtains distributional properties of small multiplicative subgroups of \(\mathbb F_p\). Let \(p\) be a large prime and \(H< \mathbb F^*_p\) not of polylogarithmic size, meaning that \({\log |H|\over\log\log p}\to\infty\). It is shown that if \(0< b< 1\) is any fixed constant, then \[ \max_{a\in \mathbb F^*_p}{1\over|H|}\left|\{x\in H: \text{ there is } m\in [-p^b, ^b]\cap\mathbb Z \text{ such that } ax\equiv m\pmod p\}\right|\to 0. \] This property is related to a result of \textit{S. V. Konyagin} [Proc. Steklov Inst. Math. 198, 105--117 (1994); translation from Tr. Mat. Inst. Steklova 198, 111--124 (1992; Zbl 0820.11048)] on the largest residue in multiplicative subgroups. It is also shown that for any \(0< b< 1\) there are constants \(C(b)> 1\) and \(\delta(b)> 0\) such that if \(H< \mathbb F^*_p\) and \(|H|> C(b)\), then for all \(a\in\mathbb F^*_p\), \[ |\{x\in H:\text{ there is }m\in [-p^b, p^b]\cap\mathbb Z\text{ with }ax\equiv m\pmod p\}|< (1-\delta)|H|. \] Then the following theorems are shown : (1) For \(\varepsilon> 0\) and \(g\in\mathbb F^*_p\), \(0_p(p)= t> N\) with \({\log N\over\log\log p}\to\infty\), then the set \(\{xg^n: 0< x< p^\varepsilon\), \(n= 1,\dots,N\}\) becomes equidistributed \(\pmod p\). (2) For all \(\varepsilon_0> 0\) there are \(C(\varepsilon_0)\) and \(\delta(\varepsilon_0)\) such that if \(H<\mathbb F^*_p\), \(|H|> C(\varepsilon)\), then for all \(a\in\mathbb F^*_p\), \[ |\{g\in H: ag\equiv z\in [-p^{1-\varepsilon_0}, p^{1+\varepsilon_0}]\}|< (1-\delta(\varepsilon_0))|H|. \] The proofs are based on the theory of heights and results from additive combinatorics and use theorems of Szeméredi and of Freiman.