Bounds on the Higher Degree Erd\H{o}s-Ginzburg-Ziv Constants over $\mathbb{F}_q^n$

TL;DR

This paper establishes new bounds on higher degree Erdős-Ginzburg-Ziv constants over finite fields, improving previous bounds and applying advanced combinatorial methods like Lovász Local Lemma, Slice Rank, and cap-set bounds.

Contribution

It provides novel lower and upper bounds for these constants over _q^n, using probabilistic and algebraic techniques, and extends the understanding of zero-sum problems in finite rings.

Findings

Lower bounds surpass previous results for large n

Closed-form upper bounds derived from cap-set problem solutions

Convex optimization approach yields best bounds for specific parameters

Abstract

The classical Erd\H{o}s-Ginzburg-Ziv constant of a group $G$ denotes the smallest positive integer $\ell$ such that any sequence $S$ of length at least $\ell$ contains a zero-sum subsequence of length $\exp(G)$. In a recent paper, Caro and Schmitt generalized this concept, using the $m$-th degree symmetric polynomial $e_m(S)$ instead of the sum of the elements of $S$ and considering subsequences of a given length $t$. In particular, they defined the higher degree Erd\H{o}s-Ginzburg-Ziv constants $EGZ(t,R,m)$ of a finite commutative ring $R$ and presented several lower and upper bounds to these constants. This paper aims to provide lower and upper bounds for $EGZ(t,R,m)$ in case $R=\mathbb{F}_q^{n}$. The lower bounds here presented have been obtained, respectively, using Lov\'asz Local Lemma and the Expurgation method and, for sufficiently large $n$, they beat the lower bound provided by Caro and Schmitt for the same kind of rings. Finally, we prove closed form upper bounds derived from the Ellenberg-Gijswijt and Sauermann results for the cap-set problem assuming that $q = p^k$, $t = p$, and $m=p-1$. Moreover, using the Slice Rank method we derive a convex optimization problem that provides the best bounds for $q = 3^k$, $t = 3$, $m=2$ and $k=2,3,4,5$.