The structure of sets with cube-avoiding sumsets

Abstract

We prove that if $d \ge 2$ is an integer, $G$ is a finite abelian group, $Z_0$ is a subset of $G$ not contained in any strict coset in $G$, and $E_1,\dots,E_d$ are dense subsets of $G^n$ such that the sumset $E_1+\dots+E_d$ avoids $Z_0^n$ then $E_1, \dots, E_d$ essentially have bounded dimension. More precisely, they are almost entirely contained in sets $E_1' \times G^{I^c}, \dots, E_d' \times G^{I^c}$, where the size of $I \subset [n]$ is non-zero and independent of $n$, and $E_1',\dots,E_d'$ are subsets of $G^{I}$ such that the sumset $E_1'+\dots+E_d'$ avoids $Z_0^I$.