Multiplicative structures in additively large sets

Previous research extending over a few decades has established that multiplicatively large sets (in any of several interpretations) must have substantial additive structure. We investigate here the question of how much multiplicative structure can be found in additively large sets. For example, we show that any translate of a set of finite sums from an infinite sequence must contain all of the initial products from another infinite sequence. And, as a corollary of a result of Renling Jin, we show that if A and B have positive upper Banach density, then A+B contains all of the initial products from an infinite sequence. We also show that if a set has a complement which is not additively piecewise syndetic, then any translate of that set is both additively and multiplicatively large in several senses.We investigate whether a subset of N with bounded gaps—a syndetic set—must contain arbitrarily long geometric progressions. We believe that we establish that this is a significant open question.     

Sumsets of dense sets and sparse sets

R. Jin showed that whenever A and B are sets of integers having positive upper Banach density, the sumset A+B:= «a+b: a ∈ A, b ∈ B» is piecewise syndetic. This result was strengthened by Bergelson, Furstenberg, and Weiss to conclude that A+B must be piecewise Bohr. We generalize the latter result to cases where A has Banach density 0, giving a new proof of the previous results in the process.     

High density piecewise syndeticity of sumsets

Renling Jin proved that if A and B   are two subsets of the natural numbers with positive Banach density, then A+B$A+B$ is piecewise syndetic. In this paper, we prove that, under various assumptions on positive lower or upper densities of A and B  , there is a high density set of witnesses to the piecewise syndeticity of A+B$A+B$. Most of the results are shown to hold more generally for subsets of Z^d${\mathbb{Z}}^d$. The key technical tool is a Lebesgue density theorem for measure spaces induced by cuts in the nonstandard integers.     

Torsion units in integral group rings of metacyclic groups

It is proved that if G is a split extension of a cyclic p-group by a cyclic p′-group with faithful action then any torsion unit of augmentation one of $\text{Z}$G is rationally conjugate to a group element. It is also proved that if G is a split extension of an abelian group A by an abelian group X with (|A|, |X|) = 1 then any torsion unit of $\text{Z}$G of augmentation one and order relatively prime to |A| is rationally conjugate to an element of X.     

Sumsets contained in infinite sets of integers

If the positive integers are partitioned into a finite number of cells, then Hindman proved that there exists an infinite set B such that all finite, nonempty sums of distinct elements of B all belong to one cell of the partition. Erdös conjectured that if A is a set of integers with positive asymptotic density, then there exist infinite sets B and C such that B + C ? A. This conjecture is still unproved. This paper contains several results on sumsets contained in finite sets of integers. For example, if A is a set of integers of positive upper density, then for any n there exist sets B and F such that B has positive upper density, F has cardinality n, and B + F ? A.     

Counting MSTD sets in finite abelian groups

In an abelian group G, a more sums than differences (MSTD) set is a subset A⊂G such that |A+A|>|A−A|. We provide asymptotics for the number of MSTD sets in finite abelian groups, extending previous results of Nathanson. The proof contains an application of a recently resolved conjecture of Alon and Kahn on the number of independent sets in a regular graph.     

An ultrafilter approach to Jin’s theorem

It is well known and not difficult to prove that if C ⊆ ℤ has positive upper Banach density, the set of differences C − C is syndetic, i.e. the length of gaps is uniformly bounded. More surprisingly, Renling Jin showed that whenever A and B have positive upper Banach density, then A − B is piecewise syndetic.     

Cohen-Host type idempotent theorems for representations on Banach spaces and applications to Figà-Talamanca-Herz algebras

Let G be a locally compact group, and let R(G) denote the ring of subsets of G generated by the left cosets of open subsets of G. The Cohen-Host idempotent theorem asserts that a set lies in R(G) if and only if its indicator function is a coefficient function of a unitary representation of G on some Hilbert space. We prove related results for representations of G on certain Banach spaces. We apply our Cohen-Host type theorems to the study of the Figà-Talamanca-Herz algebras Ap(G) with p∈(1,∞). For arbitrary G, we characterize those closed ideals of Ap(G) that have an approximate identity bounded by 1 in terms of their hulls. Furthermore, we characterize those G such that Ap(G) is 1-amenable for some—and, equivalently, for all—p∈(1,∞): these are precisely the abelian groups.     

Low upper bounds in the LR degrees

We say that A≤_LRB if every B-random real is A-random—in other words, if B has at least as much derandomization power as A. The LR reducibility is a natural weak reducibility in the context of randomness, and generalizes lowness for randomness. We study the existence and properties of upper bounds in the context of the LR degrees. In particular, we show that given two (or even finitely many) low sets, there is a low c.e. set which lies LR above both. This is very different from the situation in the Turing degrees, where Sacks’ splitting theorem shows that two low sets can join to 0^′.     

On maximal abelian subgroups in finite 2-groups

We determine here up to isomorphism the structure of any finite nonabelian 2-group G in which every two distinct maximal abelian subgroups have cyclic intersection. We obtain five infinite classes of such 2-groups (Theorem 1.1). This solves for p = 2 the problem Nr. 521 stated by Berkovich (in preparation). The more general problem Nr. 258 stated by Berkovich (in preparation) about the structure of finite nonabelian p-groups G such that A ∩ B = Z(G) for every two distinct maximal abelian subgroups A and B is treated in Theorems 3.1 and 3.2. In Corollary 3.3 we get a new result for an arbitrary finite 2-group. As an application of Theorems 3.1 and 3.2, we solve for p = 2 a problem of Heineken-Mann (Problem Nr. 169 stated in Berkovich, in preparation), classifying finite 2-groups G such that A/Z(G) is cyclic for each maximal abelian subgroup A (Theorem 4.1).      

IPr sets with polynomial weights and Szemerédi's theorem

In the mid 1980s H. Furstenberg and Y. Katznelson defined IPr sets in abelian groups as, roughly, sets consisting of all finite sums of r fixed elements. They obtained, via their powerful IP Szemerédi theorem for commuting groups of measure preserving transformations, many IPr set applications for the density Ramsey theory of abelian groups, including the striking result that, given e>0 and k∈N, there exists some r∈N such that for any IPr set R⊂Z and any E⊂Z with upper density >?, E contains a k-term arithmetic progression having common difference r∈R. Here, polynomial versions of these results are obtained as applications of a recently proved polynomial extension to the Furstenberg-Katznelson IP Szemerédi theorem.     

Identities and isomorphisms of graded simple algebras

Let G be an arbitrary abelian group and let A and B be two finite dimensional G-graded simple algebras over an algebraically closed field F such that the orders of all finite subgroups of G are invertible in F. We prove that A and B are isomorphic if and only if they satisfy the same G-graded identities. We also describe all isomorphism classes of finite dimensional G-graded simple algebras.     

On the maximum size of a k-zero-free set in an abelian group

A subset A of elements in an abelian group G is called k-zero-free if the equation x ₁ + x ₂ + ... + x _k = 0 has no solution in A. A k-zero-free set A in G is called maximal if A ∪ {x} is k-zero-free for no x ∈ G\A. Some bounds for the maximum size of a k-zero free set are obtained. In particular, we determine the maximum speed of a k-zero-free arithmetic progression in the cyclic group Z _n and find the upper and lower bounds for the maximum size of a k-zero-free set in an abelian group G. We describe the structure of a maximal k-zero-free set A in the cyclic group Z _n provided that gcd(n, k) = 1 and k|A| ≥ n + 1.     

Malliavin's theorem for weak synthesis on nonabelian groups

Malliavin's celebrated theorem on the failure of spectral synthesis for the Fourier algebra A(G) on nondiscrete abelian groups was strengthened to give failure of weak synthesis by Parthasarathy and Varma. We extend this to nonabelian groups by proving that weak synthesis holds for A(G) if and only if G is discrete. We give the injection theorem and the inverse projection theorem for weak X-spectral synthesis, as well as a condition for the union of two weak X-spectral sets to be weak X-spectral for an A(G)-submodule X of VN(G). Relations between weak X-synthesis in A(G) and A(G×G) and the Varopoulos algebra V(G) are explored. The concept of operator synthesis was introduced by Arveson. We extend several recent investigations on operator synthesis by defining and studying, for a V^∞(G)-submodule M of B(L²(G)), sets of weak M-operator synthesis. Relations between X-Ditkin sets and M-operator Ditkin sets and between weak X-spectral synthesis and weak M-operator synthesis are explored.     

On sum sets of sidon sets,II

LetG be a finite abelian group,G?{Z _n, Z₂?Z_2n}. Then every sequenceA={g ₁,...,g_t} of $t = \frac{{4\left| G \right|}}{3} + 1$ elements fromG contains a subsequenceB?A, |G|=|G| such that $\sum\nolimits_{g_i \in B^{g_i } } { = 0 (in G)} $ . This bound, which is best possible, extends recent results of [1] and [22] concerning the celebrated theorem of Erdös-Ginzburg-Ziv [21].     

Torsion units in integral group rings of some metabelian groups,II

We prove that any torsion unit of the integral group ring ZG is rationally conjugate to a trivial unit if G = A ⋊ X with both A and X abelian, |Xz.sfnc; < p for every prime p dividing |A| provided either |X| is prime or A ic cyclic.     

Finite 2-groups with exactly one nonmetacyclic maximal subgroup

We determine here the structure of the title groups. All such groups G will be given in terms of generators and relations, and many important subgroups of these groups will be described. Let d(G) be the minimal number of generators of G. We have here d(G) ≤ 3 and if d(G) = 3, then G′ is elementary abelian of order at most 4. Suppose d(G) = 2. Then G′ is abelian of rank ≤ 2 and G/G′ is abelian of type (2, 2^m), m ≥ 2. If G′ has no cyclic subgroup of index 2, then m = 2. If G′ is noncyclic and G/Φ(G ₀) has no normal elementary abelian subgroup of order 8, then G′ has a cyclic subgroup of index 2 and m = 2. But the most important result is that for all such groups (with d(G) = 2) we have G = AB, for suitable cyclic subgroups A and B. Conversely, if G = AB is a finite nonmetacyclic 2-group, where A and B are cyclic, then G has exactly one nonmetacyclic maximal subgroup. Hence, in this paper the nonmetacyclic 2-groups which are products of two cyclic subgroups are completely determined. This solves a long-standing problem studied from 1953 to 1956 by B. Huppert, N. Itô and A. Ohara. Note that if G = AB is a finite p-group, p > 2, where A and B are cyclic, then G is necessarily metacyclic (Huppert [4]). Hence, we have solved here problem Nr. 776 from Berkovich [1].     

Amenability and weak amenability of the Fourier algebra

Let G be a locally compact group. We show that its Fourier algebra A(G) is amenable if and only if G has an abelian subgroup of finite index, and that its Fourier–Stieltjes algebra B(G) is amenable if and only if G has a compact, abelian subgroup of finite index. We then show that A(G) is weakly amenable if the component of the identity of G is abelian, and we prove some partial results towards the converse.Research supported by NSERC under grant no. 90749-00.Research supported by NSERC under grant no. 227043-00.     

Bohr compactifications and a result of følner

In this paper, we study the Bohr compactification of an arbitrary topological groupT with regard to obtaining relations between relatively dense (or discretely syndetic) subsets ofT, and neighborhoods of the identity in the Bohr compactification. The methods utilized are those algebraic techniques which have been recently applied to topological dynamics (see [2]). For an abelian group, we show that cls (A ^?1 AAa ^?1), forA relatively dense anda∈A, is usually a neighborhood of the identity, thus generalizing a result of Følner [4]. Moreover, an analogous result is proved in the non-abelian case under additional assumptions. Finally, we utilize these results to obtain a generalization of a result of Cotlar-Ricabarra [1] concerning maximal almost periodicity in abelian topological groups.     

Skew group algebras of piecewise hereditary algebras are piecewise hereditary

We show that the main results of Happel-Rickard-Schofield (1988) and Happel-Reiten-Smalø (1996) on piecewise hereditary algebras are coherent with the notion of group action on an algebra. Then, we take advantage of this compatibility and show that if G is a finite group acting on a piecewise hereditary algebra A over an algebraically closed field whose characteristic does not divide the order of G, then the resulting skew group algebra A[G] is also piecewise hereditary.