Non-abelian additive combinatorics studies product sets and configuration counts in noncommutative groups. Fourier analysis on a finite group and quasirandom groups connect small-dimensional group representations with multiplicative mixing.
Use the following normalization for Fourier analysis on a finite group. Choose one unitary irreducible representation from each equivalence class, including the trivial representation. For a scalar function , put
This convention uses , rather than , in the Fourier transform on a finite group; it makes the normalized convolution on a finite group preserve multiplication order.
The needed representation theory consists of Maschke's theorem and unitarization of a finite-group representation, together with the Schur orthogonality relations:
The regular representation contains copies of each , so . Thus the scaled matrix coefficients , and also their complex conjugates, form an orthonormal basis of all scalar functions on . These facts imply Fourier inversion on a finite group and the Parseval identity on a finite group in the forms
and hence
In particular, the transform is an isomorphism onto the direct sum of the matrix algebras , with the displayed weighted Hilbert-Schmidt inner product.
Define the normalized convolution on a finite group by
Substituting and using the group representation identity yields the convolution theorem on a finite group
Unlike normalized convolution on a finite group on an abelian group, this product need not commute. If , then . For left translation of a group function and right translation of a group function and ,
For an abelian group, every irreducible representation is one-dimensional; this reduces to Fourier analysis on a finite abelian group with characters relabelled by their inverses. These formulas establish the basic scalar theory, with all normalizations and multiplication orders fixed.
Now suppose every nontrivial irreducible representation has . If is a mean-zero function, its component at the trivial representation is zero. The Parseval identity on a finite group gives, for each other ,
Using the convolution theorem on a finite group, the Hilbert-Schmidt norm inequality , and the Parseval identity on a finite group once more gives the product mixing in a quasirandom group estimate
Write for the subset density values of , respectively, and let , be balanced subset indicators. Since both are mean-zero functions, . Their squared norms are and . Also , so the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality yields
If , the final bound is strictly smaller than . Thus the normalized number of pairs with is positive. Equivalently,
This is the desired conclusion for a quasirandom group; the strict inequality ensures positivity rather than merely a nonnegative lower bound.
For an -quasirandom group, uniform expectations, and the normalized convolution on a finite group, a scalar mean-zero function satisfies
The Fourier analysis on a finite group proof bounds each nontrivial matrix component of in operator norm using its weighted Hilbert-Schmidt norm. For subsets of subset density values , the error in their normalized product count is at most . In particular guarantees a solution of in the three subsets.