The Structure of Critical Product Sets

MaRDI QIDQ6238431zbMATH OpenFDO

Authors Matt DeVos

Publication date 1 January 2013

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Abstract: Let $G$ be a multiplicative group, let $A,BsubseteqG$ be finite and nonempty, and define the product set $$a in A$and$b in B$$. Two fundamental problems in combinatorial number theory are to find lower bounds on $|AB|$, and then to determine structural properties of $A$ and $B$ under the assumption that $|AB|$ is small. We focus on the extreme case when $|AB|<|A|+|B|$, and call any such pair $(A,B)$ emph{critical}. In the case when $|G|$ is prime, the Cauchy-Davenport Theorem asserts that $|AB|gemin|G|,|A|+|B|-1$, and Vosper refined this result by classifying all critical pairs in these groups. For abelian groups, Kneser proved a natural generalization of Cauchy-Davenport by showing that there exists $HleG$ so that $|AB|ge|A|+|B|-|H|$ and $ABH=AB$. Kemperman then proved a result which characterizes the structure of all critical pairs in abelian groups. Our main result gives a classification of all critical pairs in an arbitrary group $G$. As a consequence of this we derive the following generalization of Kneser's Theorem to arbitrary groups: There exists $HleG$ so that $|AB|ge|A|+|B|-|H|$ and so that for every $yinAB$ there exists $xinG$ so that $y(x^{-1}Hx)subseteqAB$.

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