Sets with Few Differences in Abelian Groups

  • Mitchell Lee
Keywords: Abelian groups, Sumsets, Cauchy-Davenport Theorem

Abstract

Let $(G, +)$ be an abelian group. In 2004, Eliahou and Kervaire found an explicit formula for the smallest possible cardinality of the sumset $A+A$, where $A \subseteq G$ has fixed cardinality $r$. We consider instead the smallest possible cardinality of the difference set $A-A$, which is always greater than or equal to the smallest possible cardinality of $A+A$ and can be strictly greater. We conjecture a formula for this quantity and prove the conjecture in the case that $G$ is an elementary abelian $p$-group. This resolves a conjecture of Bajnok and Matzke on signed sumsets.
Published
2018-08-10
Article Number
P3.19