Student Number Theory seminar

Monday, July 22, 2013 11:30 am - 11:30 am EDT (GMT -04:00)

Chao Lin, Department of Pure Mathematics, University of Waterloo

"Freiman's Theorem - Part I"

For a set of numbers $A$, let the sum-set $A+A$ denote
$\{a_1+a_2: a_1, a_2 \in A \}$. Freiman's theorem proves the remarkable notion that if a finite subset of integers $A$ has a relatively small sum-set $A+A$, then $A$ essentially resembles an arithmetic progression. More precisely, if $|A+A| \leq C|A|$ then there exists constants $d, S$ depending only on $C$ such that $A$ is contained in a generalized arithmetic progression of dimension $d$ and size $\leq S|A|$. This is the first of two talks presenting the proof of Freiman's theorem, which uses ideas ranging from graph theory, discrete Fourier analysis, and Minkowski's geometry of numbers. For a set of numbers $A$, let the sum-set $A+A$ denote $\{a_1+a_2: a_1, a_2 \in A \}$. Freiman's theorem proves the remarkable notion that if a finite subset of integers $A$ has a relatively small sum-set $A+A$, then $A$ essentially resembles an arithmetic progression. More precisely, if $|A+A| \leq C|A|$ then there exists constants $d, S$ depending only on $C$ such that $A$ is contained in a generalized arithmetic progression of dimension $d$ and size $\leq S|A|$. This is the first of two talks presenting the proof of Freiman's theorem, which uses ideas ranging from graph theory, discrete Fourier analysis, and Minkowski's geometry of numbers.