18.

217 PROBLEM SET (FALL 2019) 2

A. Introduction

ps1 A1. Ramsey’s theorem

(a) Let s and r be positive integers. Show that there is some integer n = n(s, r) so that if
every edge of the complete graph Kn on n vertices is colored with one of r colors, then
there is a monochromatic copy of Ks .
(b) Let s ≥ 3 be a positive integer. Show that if the edges of the complete graph on 2s−2
�

s−1
vertices are colored with 2 colors, then there is a monochromatic copy of Ks .
ps1 A2. Prove that it is possible to color N using two colors so that there is no infinitely long monochro-
matic arithmetic progression.
ps1 A3. Many monochromatic triangles
(a) True or false: If the edges of Kn are colored using 2 colors, then at least 1/4 − o(1)
fraction of all triangles are monochromatic. (Note that 1/4 is the fraction one expects
if the edges were colored uniformly at random.)
(b) True or false: if the edges of Kn are colored using 3 colors, then at least 1/9 − o(1)
fraction of all triangles are monochromatic.
(c) (? do not submit) True or false: if the edges of Kn are colored using 2 colors, then at
least 1/32 − o(1) fraction of all copies of K4 ’s are monochromatic.
(d) (do not submit) Prove that for every s and r, there is some constant c > 0 so that for
every suÿciently large n, if the edges of Kn are colored using r colors, then at least c
fraction of all copies of Ks are monochromatic.

B. Forbidding subgraphs
 
n2
ps1 B1. Show that a graph with n vertices and m edges has at least 4m 3n m − 4 triangles.
 2 
ps1? B2. Prove that every n-vertex graph with at least n /4 + 1 edges contains at least bn/2c
triangles.
B3. Prove that every n-vertex graph with at least n2 /4 + 1 edges contains some edge in at least
 
ps1?
(1/6 − o(1))n triangles, and that this constant 1/6 is best possible.
B4. Kr+1 -free graphs close to the Turán bound are nearly r-partite
(a) Let G be an n-vertex triangle-free graph with at least n2 /4 − k edges. Prove that G
 
ps1
can be made bipartite by removing at most k edges.
ps1? (b) Let G be an n-vertex Kr+1 -free graph with at least e(Tn,r ) − k edges, where Tn,r is the
Turán graph. Prove that G can be made r-partite by removing at most k edges.
B5. Let G be a Kr+1 -free graph. Prove that there is another graph H on the same vertex set as
G such that χ(H) ≤ r and dH (x) ≥ dG (x) for every vertex x (here dH (x) is the degree of x
in H, and likewise with dG (x) for G). Give another proof of Turán’s theorem from this fact.
B6. Turán density. Let H be a r-uniform hypergraph, let its Turán number ex(r) (n, H) be the
maximum number of edges in an r-uniform hypergraph on n vertices that does not contain
H as a subgraph. Prove that the fraction ex(r) (n, H)/ nr is a nonincreasing function of n, so
�

that it has a limit π(H) as n → ∞, called the Turán density of H.

 18.217 PROBLEM SET (FALL 2019) 3

B7. Supersaturation. Let H be a graph and ρ a constant such that lim supn→∞ ex(n, H)/ n2 ≤ ρ.
�

ps1
Prove that for every  > 0 there exists some constant c = c(H, ) > 0 such that for suÿciently
large n, every n-vertex graph with at least (ρ + ) n2 edges contains at least cnv(H) copies of
�

H.
ps1 B8. Let S be a set of n points in the plane, with the property that no two points are at distance
greater than 1. Show that S has at most n2 /3 pairs of points at distance greater than
 
√
1/ 2. Also, show that the bound n2 /3 is tight (i.e., cannot be improved).
 

ps1 B9. (How not to define density in a product set) Let S ⊂ Z2 . Define
|S ∩ (A × B)|
dk (S) = max .
A,B⊂Z |A||B|
|A|=|B|=k

Show that limk→∞ dk (S) exists and is always either 0 or 1.

B10. Show that, for every  > 0, there exists δ > 0 such that every graph with n vertices and at
least n2 edges contains a copy of Ks,t where s ≥ δ log n and t ≥ n0.99 .
ps2 B11. Density version of K®vári–Sós–Turán. Prove that for every positive integers s ≤ t, there are
constants C, c > 0 such that every n-vertex graph with p n2 edges contains at least cpst ns+t
�

copies of Ks,t , provided that p ≥ Cn−1/s .

ps2? B12. Hypergraph K®vári–Sós–Turán and a proof of Erd®s–Stone–Simonovits
(a) Prove that for every positive integer t there is some C so that every 3-uniform hypergraph
−2 (3)
on n vertices and at least Cn3−t edges (i.e., triples) contains a copy of Kt,t,t , the
complete tripartite 3-uniform hypergraph with t vertices in each part.
(b) Deduce that ex(n, H) ≤ ( 14 + o(1))n2 for every graph H with χ(H) ≤ 3.
(c) Explain how to generalize the above strategy to prove the Erd®s–Stone–Simonovits the-
orem for every H (sketch the key steps).
ps2 B13. Find a graph H with χ(H) = 3 and ex(n, H) > 14 n2 + n1.99 for all suÿciently large n.
ps2? B14. Construction of a C6 -free graph. Let q be an odd prime power. Let S denote the quadratic
surface in the 4-dimensional projective space over Fq (whose points are nonzero points of F5q
modulo the equivalence relation (x0 , x1 , x2 , x3 , x4 ) ∼ (λx0 , λx1 , λx2 , λx3 , λx4 ) for λ ∈ F×
q )
given by the equation (you may use another quadratic form if you wish)

x20 + 2x1 x2 + 2x3 x4 = 0.

Let L be the set of lines contained in S.

(a) Prove that no three lines of L lie in the same plane.
(b) Show that the point-line incidence bipartite graph between S and L is a (q + 1)-regular
graph on 2(q 3 + q 2 + q + 1) vertices with no cycles of length at most 6. Conclude that
ex(n, C6 ) ≥ cn4/3 for some constant c > 0.
The next two problems concern the dependent random choice technique.
ps2 B15. Let  > 0. Show that, for suÿciently large n, every K4 -free graph with n vertices and at least
n2 edges contains an independent set of size at least n1− .
ps2? B16. Extremal numbers of degenerate graphs
 18.217 PROBLEM SET (FALL 2019) 4

(a) Prove that there is some absolute constant c > 0 so that for every positive integer r,
every n-vertex graph with at least n2−c/r edges contains disjoint vertex subsets A and B
such that every subset of r vertices in A has at least nc neighbors in B and every subset
of r vertices in B has at least nc neighbors in A.
(b) We say that a graph H is r-degenerate if its vertices can be ordered so that every vertex
has at most r neighbors that appear before it in the ordering. Show that for every r-
degenerate bipartite graph H there is some constant C > 0 so that ex(n, H) ≤ Cn2−c/r ,
where c is the same absolute constant from part (a) (c should not depend on H or r).
ps2 B17. Let T be a tree with k edges. Show that ex(n, T ) ≤ kn.
ps2? B18. Show that every n-vertex triangle-free graph with minimum degree greater than 2n/5 is
bipartite.

C. Szemerédi’s regularity lemma and applications

For simplicity, you are welcome to apply the equitable version of Szemerédi’s regularity lemma.
C1. Let G be a graph and X, Y ⊂ V (G). If (X, Y ) is an η-regular pair, then (X 0 , Y 0 ) is -regular
for all X 0 ⊂ X with |X 0 | ≥ η|X| and Y 0 ⊂ Y with |Y 0 | ≥ η|Y |.
C2. Let G be a graph and X, Y ⊂ V (G). Say that (X, Y ) is -homogeneous if for all A ⊂ X and
B ⊂ Y , one has
|e(A, B) − |A| |B| d(X, Y )| ≤  |X| |Y | .
Show that if (X, Y ) is -regular, then it is -homogeneous. Also, show that if (X, Y ) is
3 -homogeneous, then it is -regular.
ps2 C3. Unavoidability of irregular pairs. Let the half-graph Hn be the bipartite graph on 2n vertices
{a1 , . . . , an , b1 , . . . , bn } with edges {ai bj : i ≤ j}.
(a) For every  > 0, explicitly construct an -regular partition of Hn into O(1/) parts.
(b) Show that there is some c > 0 such that for every  ∈ (0, c), every integer k and
suÿciently large multiple n of k, every partition of the vertices of Hn into k equal-sized
parts contains at least ck pairs of parts which are not -regular.
ps2 C4. Show that there is some absolute constant C > 0 such that for every 0 <  < 1/2, every
graph on n vertices contains an -regular pair of vertex subsets each with size at least δn,
−C
where δ = 2− .
C5. Existence of a regular set. Given a graph G, we say that X ⊂ V (G) is -regular if the pair
(X, X) is -regular, i.e., for all A, B ⊂ X with |A|, |B| ≥ |X|, one has |d(A, B)−d(X, X)| ≤ .
This problem asks for two di˙erent proofs of the claim: for every  > 0, there exists δ > 0
such that every graph contains an -regular subset of vertices of size at least δ fraction of the
vertex set.
ps3 (a) Prove the claim using Szemerédi’s regularity lemma, showing that one can obtain the
-regular subset by combining a suitable sub-collection of parts from a regular partition.
ps3? (b) Give an alternative proof of the claim showing that one can take δ = exp(− exp(−C ))
for some constant C.
ps3 C6. Show that for every  > 0, there exists δ > 0 such that every n-vertex K4 -free graph with at
least ( 18 + )n2 edges contains an independent set of size at least δn.
 18.217 PROBLEM SET (FALL 2019) 5

C7. Show that for ever  > 0, there exists δ > 0 such that every n-vertex K4 -free graph with
at least ( 18 − δ)n2 edges and independence number at most δn can be made bipartite by
removing at most n2 edges.
2
ps3 C8. Show that the number of non-isomorphic n-vertex triangle-free graphs is 2(1/4+o(1))n .
C9. Show that for every H there exists some δ > 0 such that for all suÿciently large n, if G is an
n-vertex graph with average degree at least (1 − δ)n and the edges of G are colored using 2
colors, then there is a monochromatic copy of H.
ps3 C10. Show that for every H and  > 0 there exists δ > 0 such that every graph on n vertices
without an induced copy of H contains an induced subgraph on at least δn vertices whose
edge density is at most  or at least 1 − .
C11. Random graphs are -regular. Let G be a random bipartite graph between disjoint sets of
vertices X and Y with |X| = |Y | = n, such that every pair in X × Y appears as an edge
of G independently with the same probability. Show that there is some absolute constant
1+c
c > 0 such that with probability at least 1 − e−n for suÿciently large n, the pair (X, Y ) is
-regular in G with  = n .−c

(You may use the following special case of the Azuma–Hoe˙ding inequality: if X1 , . . . , XN
are independent random variables taking values in [−1, 1], and S = X1 + · · · + XN , then
2
P(S ≥ ES + t) ≤ e−t /(2N ) .)
ps3? C12. Show that for every graph H there is some graph G such that if the edges of G are colored
with two colors, then some induced subgraph of G is a monochromatic copy of H.
ps3? C13. Show that for every c > 0, there exists c0 > 0 such that every graph on n vertices with at
least cn2 edges contains a d-regular subgraph with d ≥ c0 n (here d-regular refers to every
vertex having degree d).
ps4 C14. Show that there is a constant c > 0 so that for every suÿciently small  > 0 and suÿciently
large n > n0 () there exists an n-vertex graph with at most c log(1/) n3 triangles that cannot
be made triangle-free by removing fewer than n2 edges. (In particular, this shows that one
cannot take δ = C for some constant C > 0 in the triangle removal lemma.)
C15. Removal lemma for bipartite graphs with polynomial bounds. Prove that for every bipartite
graph H, there is a constant C such that for every  > 0, every n-vertex graph with fewer
than C nv(H) copies of H can be made H-free by removing at most n2 edges.
ps4 C16. Let H be a n-vertex 3-uniform hypergraph such that every 6 vertices contain strictly fewer
than 3 triples. Prove that H has o(n2 ) edges.
(Hint in white: apply the triangle removal lemma on an appropriate graph)
ps4 C17. Assuming the tetrahedron removal lemma for 3-uniform hypergraphs, deduce that if A ⊂ [N ]2
contains no axes-aligned squares (i.e., four points of the form (x, y), (x + d, y), (x, y + d), (x +
d, y + d), where d 6= 0), then |A| = o(N 2 ).
ps4? C18. Show that for every  > 0, there exists δ > 0 such that if A ⊂ [n] has fewer than δn2 many
triples (x, y, z) ∈ A3 with x + y = z, then there is some B ⊂ A with |A \ B| ≤ n such that
B is sum-free, i.e., there do not exist x, y, z ∈ B with x + y = z.
 18.217 PROBLEM SET (FALL 2019) 6

D. Spectral graph theory and pseudorandom graphs

ps4 D1. Let G be an n-vertex graph. The Laplacian of G is defined to be LG = DG − AG , where AG

is the adjacency matrix of G and DG a diagonal matrix whose entry corresponding to the
vertex v ∈ V (G) is the degree of v in G (so that LG is a symmetric matrix with all row sums
zero). Let λ1 ≤ λ2 ≤ · · · ≤ λn be the eigenvalues of LG , with λ1 = 0 corresponding to the
all-1 vector. Prove that for every S ⊂ V (G) with |S| ≤ n/2, one has (writing S := V (G) \ S)
1
e(S, S) ≥ λ2 |S|
2
ps4? D2. Let p be an odd prime and A, B ⊂ Z/pZ. Show that
 
 X X  a + b  √
≤p p
 
p

 
a∈A b∈B

where (a/p) is the Legendre symbol defined by

⎧
  ⎪ ⎨0
⎪ if a ≡ 0 (mod p)
a
= 1 if a is a nonzero quadratic residue mod p
p ⎪
⎪
−1 if a is a quadratic nonresidue mod p
⎩

D3. Quasirandom transitive graphs. Prove that if an n-vertex d-regular vertex-transitive graph G
satisfies
e(X, Y ) − d |X||Y | ≤ dn for all X, Y ⊆ V (G),
 
n
then all the eigenvalues of the adjacency matrix of G, other than the largest one, are at most
8d in absolute value.
ps4 D4. Prove that the diameter of an (n, d, λ)–graph is at most dlog n/ log(d/λ)e. (The diameter of
a graph is the maximum distance between a pair of vertices.)
D5. Let G be an n-vertex d-regular graph. Suppose n is divisible by k. Color the vertices of G
with k colors (not necessarily a proper coloring) such that each color appears exactly n/k
times. Suppose that all eigenvalues, except the top one, of the adjacency matrix of G are at
most d/k in absolute value. Show that there is a vertex of G whose neighborhood contains
all k colors.
ps4 D6. Prove that for every positive integer d and real  > 0, there is some constant c > 0 so that if G
is an n-vertex d-regular graph with adjacency matrix AG , then at least cn of the eigenvalues
√
of AG are greater than 2 d − 1 − .
ps4? D7. Show that for every d and r, there is some  > 0 such that if G is a d-regular graph, and
S ⊂ V (G) is such that every vertex of G is within distance r of S, then the top eigenvalue of
the adjacency matrix of G − S (i.e., remove S and its incident edges from G) is at most d − .
ps4? D8. Prove or disprove: there exists an absolute constant C such that the adjacency matrix of every
n-vertex Cayley graph has an eigenbasis in Cn (consisting of n orthonormal unit eigenvectors)
√
all of whose coordinates are each at most C/ n in absolute value.
 18.217 PROBLEM SET (FALL 2019) 7

E. Graph limits and homomorphism density inequalities

Note: A “graphon” is a symmetric measurable function W : [0, 1]2 → [0, 1].

ps5 E1. Weak regularity decomposition (instead of partition).

(a) Let  > 0. Show that for every graphon W , there exist measurable S1 , . . . , Sk , T1 , . . . , Tk ⊆
[0, 1] and reals a1 , . . . , ak ∈ R, with k < −2 , such that

Xk
W − a i Si ×Ti ≤ .
1



i=1 
The above conclusion allows one to approximate an arbitrary graph(on) as a sum of most
−2 components. In the next following parts, you will show how to recover a regularity
partition from the approximation above.
(b) Show that the stepping operator P is contractive with respect to the cut norm, in the
sense that if W : [0, 1]2 → R is a measurable symmetric function, then kWP k ≤ kW k .
(c) Let P be a partition of [0, 1] into measurable sets. Let U be a graphon that is constant
on S × T for each S, T ∈ P. Show that for every graphon W , one has

kW − WP k ≤ 2kW − U k .

(d) Use (a) and (c) to give a di˙erent proof of the weak regularity lemma (with slightly worse
bounds than the one given in class): show that for every  > 0 and every graphon W ,
2
there exists partition P of [0, 1] into 2O(1/ ) measurable sets such that kW − WP k ≤ .
E2. Define W : [0, 1]2 → R by W (x, y) = 2 cos(2π(x − y)). Let G be a graph. Show that t(G, W )
is the number of ways to orient all edges of G so that every vertex has the same number of
incoming edges as outgoing edges.
E3. Show that for every  > 0 there is some C > 0 such that if W is a graphon, and S ⊂ [0, 1] is
R
a set of such that, writing W ◦ W (x, z) = [0,1] W (x, y)W (y, z) dy,
Z
|W ◦ W (s, z) − W ◦ W (t, z)| dz > 
[0,1]

for all distinct s, t ∈ S, then |S| ≤ C.

E4. Let W be a {0, 1}-valued graphon. Suppose graphons Wn satisfy kWn − W k → 0 as n → ∞.
Show that kWn − W k1 → 0 as n → ∞.
ps5 E5. “Regularity lemma” for bounded degree graphs. The r-local sample of a graph G is defined to
be the random rooted graph induced by all vertices within distance r from a uniform random
vertex v of G, and setting v to be the root.
Show that for every  > 0 and r, Δ ∈ N there exists M = M (, r, Δ) such that if G is a
graph with maximum degree at most Δ, then there exists a graph H on at most M vertices
such that the r-local samples of G and H di˙er by at most  in total variation distance.
E6. Strong regularity lemma. In this problem, you will give an alternate proof of the strong
regularity lemma with explicit bounds.
Let  = (1 , 2 , . . . ) be a sequence of positive reals. By repeatedly applying the weak
regularity lemma, show that there is some M = M () such that for every graphon W , there
 18.217 PROBLEM SET (FALL 2019) 8

is a pair of partitions P and Q of [0, 1] into measurable sets, such that Q refines P, |Q| ≤ M
(here |Q| denotes the number of parts of Q),

kW − WQ k ≤ |P| and kWQ k22 ≤ kWP k22 + 21 .

Furthermore, deduce the strong regularity lemma in the following form: one can write

W = Wstr + Wpsr + Wsml

where Wstr is a k-step-graphon with k ≤ M , kWpsr k ≤ k , and kWsml k1 ≤ 1 . State

your bounds on M explicitly in terms of . (Note: the parameter choice k = /k 2 roughly
corresponds to Szemerédi’s regularity lemma, in which case your bound on M should be an
exponential tower of 2’s of height −O(1) ; if not then you are doing something wrong.)
ps5 E7. Inverse counting lemma. Using the moments lemma (t(F, U ) = t(F, W ) for all F implies
δ (U, W ) = 0) and compactness of the space of graphons, deduce that for every  > 0, there
exist k ∈ N and η > 0 such that if U and W are graphons such that |t(F, U ) − t(F, W )| ≤ η
for all graphs F on k vertices, then δ (U, W ) ≤ .
ps5? E8. Generalized maximum cut. For symmetric measurable functions W, U : [0, 1]2 → R, define
Z
ϕ
C(W, U ) := sup hW, U i = sup W (x, y)U (ϕ(x), ϕ(y)) dxdy,
ϕ ϕ

where ϕ ranges over all measure-preserving bijections on [0, 1]. Extend the definition of C(·, ·)
to graphs by C(G, ·) := C(WG , ·), etc.
(a) Is C(U, W ) continuous jointly in (U, W ) with respect to the cut norm? Is it continuous
in U if W is held fixed?
(b) Show that if W1 and W2 are graphons such that C(W1 , U ) = C(W2 , U ) for all graphons
U , then δ (W1 , W2 ) = 0.
(c) Let G1 , G2 , . . . be a sequence of graphs such that C(Gn , U ) converges as n → ∞ for
every graphon U . Show that G1 , G2 , . . . is convergent.
(d) Can the hypothesis in (c) be replaced by “C(Gn , H) converges as n → ∞ for every graph
H”?
E9. (a) Let G1 and G2 be two graphs such that hom(F, G1 ) = hom(F, G2 ) for every graph F .
Show that G1 and G2 are isomorphic.
(b) Let G1 and G2 be two graphs such that hom(G1 , H) = hom(G2 , H) for every graph H.
Show that G1 and G2 are isomorphic.
E10. Fix 0 < p < 1. Let G be a graph on n vertices with average degree at least pn. Prove:
(a) The number of labeled copies of K3,3 in G is at least (p9 − o(1))n6 .
ps5 (b) The number of labeled 6-cycles in G is at least (p6 − o(1))n6 . (You may not use part (d)
for part (b))
ps5 (c) The number of labeled copies of Q3 = in G is at least (p12 − o(1))n8 .
ps5? (d) The number of labeled paths on 4 vertices in G is at least (p3 − o(1))n4 .
 18.217 PROBLEM SET (FALL 2019) 9

ps5? E11. Let Fm denote the set of all m-edge graphs without isolated vertices (up to isomorphism).
Suppose p ∈ [0, 1] is a constant, and Gn is a sequence of graphs such that
X X
lim t(F, Gn ) = p|E(F )|
n→∞
F ∈Fm F ∈Fm

for every positive integer m. Prove that Gn converges to the constant graphon p.
ps5? E12. Prove there is a function f : [0, 1] → [0, 1] with f (x) ≥ x2 and limx→0 f (x)/x2 = ∞ such that

t(K4− , W ) ≥ f (t(K3 , W ))

for all graphons W . Here K4− is K4 with one edge removed.

F. Fourier analysis and linear patterns

Some conventions: for f : Fnp → C with prime p,

• fb(r) = Ex∈Fnp f (x)ω −r·x where ω = e2πi/p
• kf ks := (E[|f |s ])1/s
• kfbk∞ = maxr∈Fnp |fb(r)|

ps5 F1. Fourier does not control 4-AP counts. Let A = {x ∈ Fn5 : x · x = 0}. Write N = 5n .
(a) Show that |A| = (1/5 + o(1))N and |1c A (r)| = o(1) for all r 6= 0.
(b) Show that |{(x, y) ∈ F5 : x, x + y, x + 2y, x + 3y ∈ A}| 6= (5−4 + o(1))N 2 .
n

ps6 F2. Linearity testing. Show that for every prime p and real  > 0, there exists δ > 0 such that if
f : Fnp → Fp is a function such that

Px,y∈Fnp (f (x) + f (y) = f (x + y)) ≥ 1 − δ

then there exists some a ∈ Fnp such that

Px∈Fnp (f (x) = a1 x1 + · · · + an xn ) ≥ 1 − ,

where in the above P expressions x and y are chosen i.i.d. uniform from Fnp .
ps6 F3. Counting solutions to a single linear equation.
(a) Given a function f : Z → C with finite support, define fb: R/Z → C by
X
fb(t) = f (n)e−2πint .
n∈Z

Let c1 , . . . , ck ∈ Z. Let A ⊂ Z be a finite set. Show that

Z 1
k
|{(a1 , . . . , ak ) ∈ A : c1 a1 + · · · + ck ak = 0}| = A (c1 t)1A (c2 t) · · · 1A (ck t) dt.
1c c c
0

(b) Show that if a finite set A of integers contains β |A|2 solutions (a, b, c) ∈ A3 to a+2b = 3c,
then it contains at least β 2 |A|3 solutions (a, b, c, d) ∈ A4 to a + b = c + d.
ps6 F4. Let a1 , . . . , am , b1 , . . . , bm , c1 , . . . , cm ∈ Fn2 . Suppose that the equation ai + bj + ck = 0 holds
if and only if i = j = k. Show that there is some constant  > 0 such that m ≤ (2 − )n for
all suÿciently large n.
 18.217 PROBLEM SET (FALL 2019) 10

F5. Strong arithmetic regularity lemma. Show that for every  = (0 , 1 , . . . ) with 1 ≥ 0 ≥ 1 ≥
· · · there exists m = m() such that for every f : Fn3 → [0, 1] there exist a pair of subspaces
W ≤ U of Fn3 with codimW ≤ m and a decomposition

f = fstr + fpsr + fsml

such that
• fstr = fU and fstr + fsml = fW ,
• kfdpsr k∞ ≤ codim U
• kfsml k2 ≤ 0
F6. Counting lemma for 3-APs with restricted di˙erences. Let f : Fn3 → [0, 1] be written as
f = fstr + fpsr + fsml where
• fstr and fstr + fsml take values in [0, 1],
• kfdpsr k∞ ≤ η, and
• kfsml k2 ≤ .
Let U be a subspace of Fn3 . Show that there is some absolute constant C so that
Ex∈Fn ,y∈U (f (x)f (x + y)f (x + 2y) − fstr (x)fstr (x + y)fstr (x + 2y)) ≤ C(|U ⊥ |η + )
 
3

F7. Gowers U 2 uniformity norm. Let Γ be a finite abelian group. For f : Γ → C, define
 1/4
kf kU 2 := Ex,h,h0 ∈Γ f (x)f (x + h)f (x + h0 )f (x + h + h0 ) .

(a) Show that the expectation above is always a nonnegative real number, so that the above
expression is well defined. Also, show that kf kU 2 ≥ |Ef |.
(b) For f1 , f2 , f3 , f4 : Γ → C, let

hf1 , f2 , f3 , f4 i = Ex,h,h0 ∈Γ f1 (x)f2 (x + h)f3 (x + h0 )f4 (x + h + h0 ).

Prove that

|hf1 , f2 , f3 , f4 i| ≤ kf1 kU 2 kf2 kU 2 kf3 kU 2 kf4 kU 2

(c) By noting that hf1 , f2 , f3 , f4 i is multilinear, and using part (b), show that

kf + gkU 2 ≤ kf kU 2 + kgkU 2 .

Conclude that k kU 2 is a norm.

(d) Show that kf kU 2 = kfbk`4 , i.e.,
X
kf k4U 2 = |fb(γ)|4 .
γ∈Γ
b

Furthermore, deduce that if kf k∞ ≤ 1, then

kfbk∞ ≤ kf kU 2 ≤ kfbk1/2
∞ .

(This gives a so-called “inverse theorem” for the U 2 norm: if kf kU 2 ≥ δ then |f (γ)| ≥ δ 2
for some γ ∈ Γb , i.e., if f is not U 2 -uniform, then it must correlate with some character.)
 18.217 PROBLEM SET (FALL 2019) 11

G. Structure of set addition

ps6 G1. Show that for every real K ≥ 1 there is some CK such that for every finite set A of an abelian
group with |A + A| ≤ K|A|, one as |nA| ≤ nCK |A| for every positive integer n.
ps6? G2. Show that there is some constant C so that if S is a finite subset of an abelian group, and k
is a positive integer, then |2kS| ≤ C |S| |kS|.
ps6? G3. Show that for every suÿciently large K there is there some finite set A ⊂ Z such that
|A + A| ≤ K|A| and |A − A| ≥ K 1.99 |A|.
ps6? G4. Show that for every finite subsets A, B, C in an abelian group, one has

|A + B + C|2 ≤ |A + B| |A + C| |B + C| .

ps6 G5. Let A ⊂ Z with |A| = n.

(a) Let p be a prime. Show that there is some integer t relatively prime to p such that
kat/pkR/Z ≤ p−1/n for all a ∈ A.
(b) Show that A is Freiman 2-isomorphic to a subset of [N ] for some N = (4 + o(1))n .
(c) Show that (b) cannot be improved to N = 2n−2 .
(You may use the fact that the smallest prime larger than m has size m + o(m).)
G6. Let r3 (N ) denote the size of the largest 3-AP-free subset of [N ]. Show that there is some
constant c > 0 so that if A is 3-AP-free, then |A + A| ≥ c|A|1+c r3 (|A|)−c .
ps6 G7. Let A ⊂ Fn2 with |A| = α2n .
(a) Show that if |A + A| < 0.99· 2n , then there is some r ∈ F2n \{0} such that |1c
A (r)| > cα
3/2

for some constant c > 0.

(b) By iterating (a), show that A + A contains 99% of a subspace of codimension O(α−1/2 ).
(c) Deduce that 4A contains a subspace of codimension O(α−1/2 ) (i.e., Bogolyubov’s lemma
with better bounds than the one shown in class)
G8. Prove that there is some C > 0 so that every set of n integers has a 3-AP-free subset of size
√
ne−C log n .
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18.217 Graph Theory and Additive Combinatorics

Fall 2019

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