The sum-product conjecture is false for real numbers

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Bloom, Thomas F, Sawin, Will, Schildkraut, Carl, Zhelezov, Dmitrii
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2026
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author Bloom, Thomas F
Sawin, Will
Schildkraut, Carl
Zhelezov, Dmitrii
author_facet Bloom, Thomas F
Sawin, Will
Schildkraut, Carl
Zhelezov, Dmitrii
contents We disprove the sum-product conjecture for real numbers by constructing arbitrarily large $A\subset \mathbb{R}$ (whose elements are algebraic integers in a number field of degree $\asymp \log\lvert A\rvert$) such that \[\max(\lvert A+A\rvert ,\lvert AA\rvert)\leq \lvert A\rvert^{2-c}\] where $c>0$ is an absolute constant. We also disprove the many sums and products conjecture by constructing, for any $k\geq 3$, arbitrarily large $A\subset \mathbb{R}$ such that \[\max(\lvert kA\rvert,\lvert A^{(k)}\rvert)\leq \lvert A\rvert^{C\frac{\log k}{\log\log k}}\] for some constant $C>0$. We obtain similar constructions for $p$-adics, finite fields, and function fields in positive characteristic, and also obtain new lower bounds for the number of solutions to linear equations in a multiplicative group and the number of solutions to the unit equation in sufficiently many variables.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2605_28781
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle The sum-product conjecture is false for real numbers
Bloom, Thomas F
Sawin, Will
Schildkraut, Carl
Zhelezov, Dmitrii
Number Theory
Combinatorics
We disprove the sum-product conjecture for real numbers by constructing arbitrarily large $A\subset \mathbb{R}$ (whose elements are algebraic integers in a number field of degree $\asymp \log\lvert A\rvert$) such that \[\max(\lvert A+A\rvert ,\lvert AA\rvert)\leq \lvert A\rvert^{2-c}\] where $c>0$ is an absolute constant. We also disprove the many sums and products conjecture by constructing, for any $k\geq 3$, arbitrarily large $A\subset \mathbb{R}$ such that \[\max(\lvert kA\rvert,\lvert A^{(k)}\rvert)\leq \lvert A\rvert^{C\frac{\log k}{\log\log k}}\] for some constant $C>0$. We obtain similar constructions for $p$-adics, finite fields, and function fields in positive characteristic, and also obtain new lower bounds for the number of solutions to linear equations in a multiplicative group and the number of solutions to the unit equation in sufficiently many variables.
title The sum-product conjecture is false for real numbers
topic Number Theory
Combinatorics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.28781