Sárközy's conjecture for shifted multiplicative subgroups

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Let d≥2d\geq2, let qq be a prime power with q≡1(modd)q\equiv1\pmod d, and let Sd={xd:x∈Fq∗}S_d=\{x^d:x\in\mathbb{F}_q^*\} be the subgroup of dd-th powers. For subsets A,B⊂Fq∗A,B\subset\mathbb{F}_q^*, write AB={ab:a∈A, b∈B}AB=\{ab:a\in A,\ b\in B\}; the decomposition is nontrivial when ∣A∣,∣B∣≥2|A|,|B|\geq2.

Sárközy's conjecture. If qq is sufficiently large, then for every λ∈Fq∗\lambda\in\mathbb{F}_q^*, the shifted subgroup (Sd−λ)∖{0}(S_d-\lambda)\setminus\{0\} has no nontrivial multiplicative decomposition: there do not exist A,B⊂Fq∗A,B\subset\mathbb{F}_q^* with ∣A∣,∣B∣≥2|A|,|B|\geq2 such that

(Sd−λ)∖{0}=AB.(S_d-\lambda)\setminus\{0\}=AB.

This generalizes the quadratic-residue case and concerns multiplicative structure in shifted finite-field subgroups. The paper reports progress toward the conjecture, while the supplied text gives no resolution.

References

Primary source

Seoyoung Kim, Chi Hoi Yip and Semin Yoo, “Multiplicative structure of shifted multiplicative subgroups and its applications to Diophantine tuples”, arXiv:2309.09124 (2025).

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