Cyclic permutations of large subsets with polynomial values in multiplicative subgroups of finite fields

Abstract

Let $f(t)\in\mathbb{Z}[t]$ be a nonconstant polynomial with nonzero discriminant and let $k\ge2$ be an integer. Inspired by the work of Alon and Bourgain, for sufficiently large prime $p\equiv1\pmod{k}$, we study cyclic orderings of subsets $A\subseteq \mathbb{F}_p$ for which $ f(a_i+a_{i+1})$ is a nonzero $k$-th power for every consecutive pair. By combining mixed character-sum estimates, Fourier analysis on $\mathbb{F}_p$, and spectral graph methods, we establish a threshold $c(p,k,f)$ such that every subset $A$ with $\#A\ge c(p,k,f)$ admits such a cyclic ordering. We also give lower and upper bounds for the optimal threshold.