Zhenchao Ge, University of Waterloo
An additive property for product sets in finite fields.
Lagrange's Four Square Theorem states that every natural number can be written as a sum of four squares, i.e. squares form an additive basis of order 4. Cauchy observed that in a finite field F with q elements, squares form an additive basis of order 2. Bourgain further generalized the problem and proved that for any subset A in F, writing AA={aa': a,a'∈ A}, we have 3AA=F whenever |A|>q^{3/4}.
In general, for subsets A,B in F with |A||B|>q, one might ask that how many copies of AB are enough to cover the entire space? The current record of this problem is due to Glibichuk and Rudnev. Using basic Fourier analysis tools, they achieved 10AB=F unconditionally and 8AB=F assuming symmetry (or anti-symmetry).
In this talk, we will (hopefully) go through the paper of Glibichuk and Rudnev.
MC 5417