Minimum product set sizes in nonabelian groups of order pq

Abstract

Let G be a nonabelian group of order pq, where p and q are distinct odd primes. We analyze the minimum product set cardinality μG(r,s)=min|AB|μG(r,s)=min|AB|, where A and B range over all subsets of G of cardinalities r and s , respectively. In this paper, we completely determine μG(r,s)μG(r,s) in the case where G has order 3p and conjecture that this result can be extended to all nonabelian groups of order pq. We also prove that for every nonabelian group of order pq there exist 1⩽r,s⩽pq1⩽r,s⩽pq such that μG(r,s)>μZ/pqZ(r,s)μG(r,s)>μ[subscript Z over pqZ(r,s)].