Sums and Products of Distinct Sets and Distinct Elements in $\mathbb{C}$

Karsten Chipeniuk

Published 2009-02-20, updated 2010-09-13Version 2

Let $A$ and $B$ be finite subsets of $\mathbb{C}$ such that $|B|=C|A|$. We show the following variant of the sum product phenomenon: If $|AB|<\alpha|A|$ and $\alpha \ll \log |A|$, then $|kA+lB|\gg |A|^k|B|^l$. This is an application of a result of Evertse, Schlickewei, and Schmidt on linear equations with variables taking values in multiplicative groups of finite rank, in combination with an earlier theorem of Ruzsa about sumsets in $\mathbb{R}^d$. As an application of the case $A=B$ we give a lower bound on $|A^+|+|A^\times|$, where $A^+$ is the set of sums of distinct elements of $A$ and $A^\times$ is the set of products of distinct elements of $A$.