Generalized additive bases and difference bases for Cartesian product of finite abelian groups

Abstract

For a finite group $G$ and positive integer $g$, a $g$-additive basis is a subset of $G$ whose pairwise sums cover each element of $G$ at least $g$ times, with $g$-difference bases defined similarly using pairwise differences. While prior work focused on $1$-additive and $1$-difference bases, recent works of Kravitz and Schmutz--Tait explored $g$-additive and $g$-difference bases in finite abelian groups. This paper investigates such bases in $G^n$, the Cartesian product of a finite abelian group $G$. We construct $g$-additive and $g$-difference bases in $G^n$, which lead to asymptotically sharp upper bounds on the minimal sizes of such bases. Our proofs draw on ideas from additive combinatorics and combinatorial design theory.