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Additive relations in irrational powers

Published 2 days agoVersion 1arXiv:2512.04081

Authors

Joseph Harrison

Categories

math.NTmath.CO

Abstract

We investigate the additive theory of the set $S = \{1^c, 2^c, \dots, N^c\}$ when $c$ is a real number. In the language of additive combinatorics, we determine the asymptotic behaviour of the additive energy of $S$. When $c$ is rational, this is either known, or follows from existing results, and our contribution is a resolution of the irrational case. We deduce that for all $c \not \in \{0, 1, 2\}$, the cardinality of the sumset $S + S$ asymptotically attains its natural upper bound $N(N + 1)/2$, as $N \to \infty$. We show that there are infinitely many, effectively computable numbers $c$ such that the set $\{p^c : \textrm{$p$ prime}\}$ is additively dissociated (actually linearly independent over $\mathbb{Q}$), and we provide an effective procedure to compute the digits of such $c$.

Additive relations in irrational powers

2 days ago
v1
1 author

Categories

math.NTmath.CO

Abstract

We investigate the additive theory of the set $S = \{1^c, 2^c, \dots, N^c\}$ when $c$ is a real number. In the language of additive combinatorics, we determine the asymptotic behaviour of the additive energy of $S$. When $c$ is rational, this is either known, or follows from existing results, and our contribution is a resolution of the irrational case. We deduce that for all $c \not \in \{0, 1, 2\}$, the cardinality of the sumset $S + S$ asymptotically attains its natural upper bound $N(N + 1)/2$, as $N \to \infty$. We show that there are infinitely many, effectively computable numbers $c$ such that the set $\{p^c : \textrm{$p$ prime}\}$ is additively dissociated (actually linearly independent over $\mathbb{Q}$), and we provide an effective procedure to compute the digits of such $c$.

Authors

Joseph Harrison

arXiv ID: 2512.04081
Published Dec 3, 2025

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