Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2007 iii Paper 88 2 ii Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
A Freiman 2-isomorphism is an injective map onto its image preserving pair-sum equality in both directions, with repeated summands allowed. Put , so , , and . We prove the half-size cyclic Freiman model with a sharp difference-set bound. Assume ; for an empty set the conclusion is immediate.
Choose an odd auxiliary prime large enough that reduction modulo is injective on and no nonzero element of reduces to zero. Choose a multiplier uniformly in . The forbidden residues areThey form a symmetric set, exclude zero since , and have cardinality at most . For each nonzero , the product is uniform on the nonzero residues. Moreover, is the same event as , so one need only sum over the opposite pairs. The union bound givesFix a multiplier avoiding all forbidden events. The use of opposite pairs is what achieves the threshold without an extra factor of two.
Represent each by an integer . Partition these residues into the two half-intervalsAt least half of has representatives in one of them; call this subset . Both intervals have diameter less than , so for the integersatisfies .