The four-term sum-product conjecture for fields of characteristic different from 2 and 3

Let FF be a field with ch(F)2,3{\rm ch}(F)\not=2,3. For any xFx\in F, choose elements a,b,c,dFa,b,c,d\in F.

Four-term sum-product conjecture. There are a,b,c,dFa,b,c,d\in F such that

a+b+c+d1=x=abcd.a+b+c+d-1=x=abcd.

This conjecture is motivated by the preceding representation theorem for an even number of summands and computational evidence; its validity for all fields of characteristic different from 22 and 33 remains open.

Sources & referencesView supporting material

Primary source

Guang-Liang Zhou and Zhi-Wei Sun, “On sums and products in a field”, arXiv:1807.01181 (2018).

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