Van Lint-MacWilliams' conjecture and maximum cliques in Cayley graphs over finite fields, II

Abstract

The well-known Van Lint--MacWilliams' conjecture states that if $q$ is an odd prime power, and $A\subseteq \mathbb{F}_{q^2}$ such that $0,1 \in A$, $|A|=q$, and $a-b$ is a square for each $a,b \in A$, then $A$ must be the subfield $\mathbb{F}_q$. This conjecture was first proved by Blokhuis and is often phrased in terms of the maximum cliques in Paley graphs of square order. Previously, Asgarli and the author extended Blokhuis' theorem to a larger family of Cayley graphs. In this paper, we give a new simple proof of Blokhuis' theorem and its extensions. More generally, we show that if $S \subseteq \mathbb{F}_{q^2}^*$ has small multiplicative doubling, and $A\subseteq \mathbb{F}_{q^2}$ with $0,1 \in A$, $|A|=q$, such that $A-A \subseteq S \cup \{0\}$, then $A=\mathbb{F}_q$. This new result refines and extends several previous works; moreover, our new approach avoids using heavy machinery from number theory.