The Prouhet--Tarry--Escott problem for subsets with small doubling in integral domains

Source abstract

The Prouhet--Tarry--Escott (PTE) problem has many generalizations and has been studied in various algebraic domains. In this paper, we prove that finite subsets $S$ of integral domains with small additive doubling constant (but still a power of $|S|$) always contain solutions to Wright's generalization of the PTE problem: there are small subsets $A$ and $B$ of the same size such that $\sum_{a\in A} a^j=\sum_{b\in B} b^j$ for $1\le j\le k$, but not for $j=k+1$. More generally, our method gives simultaneous solutions for $m$ systems, with pairwise distinct $(k+1)$-th power sums. In contrast with the classical case $S\subseteq [N]$, where the problem has been studied by Wooley and others using Vinogradov's mean value theorem, our approach is based on polynomial identities and additive properties of $S$. We also discuss barriers to extending these results to broader settings.