Let $k\geq 4$ be an integer. We prove that the set $\mathcal {O}$ of all nonzero generalised octagonal numbers is a k-additive uniqueness set for the set of multiplicative functions. That is, if a multiplicative function $f_k$ satisfies the condition

$$ \begin{align*} f_k(x_1+x_2+\cdots+x_k)=f_k(x_1)+f_k(x_2)+\cdots+f_k(x_k) \end{align*} $$

for arbitrary $x_1,\ldots ,x_k\in \mathcal {O}$, then $f_k$ is the identity function $f_k(n)=n$ for all $n\in \mathbb {N}$. We also show that $f_2$ and $f_3$ are not determined uniquely.

We prove that a finite set of natural numbers J satisfies that $J\cup \{0\}$ is not Sidon if and only if for any operator T, the disjoint hypercyclicity of $\{T^j:j\in J\}$ implies that T is weakly mixing. As an application we show the existence of a non-weakly mixing operator T such that $T\oplus T^2\oplus\cdots \oplus T^n$ is hypercyclic for every n.

We obtain a nontrivial upper bound for the multiplicative energy of any sufficiently large subset of a subvariety of a finite algebraic group. We also find some applications of our results to the growth of conjugates classes, estimates of exponential sums, and restriction phenomenon.

We prove some results concerning convolutions, additive energies, and sumsets of convex sets and their generalizations. In particular, we show that if a set $A\,=\,{{\{{{a}_{1}},\,.\,.\,.\,,\,{{a}_{n}}\}}_{<}}\,\subseteq \,\mathbb{R}$ has the property that for every fixed $1\,\le \,d\,<\,n$, all differences ${{a}_{i}}\,-\,{{a}_{i-d}},\,d\,<\,i\,<n$, are distinct, then $\left| A\,+\,A \right|\,\gg \,{{\left| A \right|}^{3/2+c}}$ for a constant $c\,>\,0$.

Let $p$ be a prime, and let $f:\mathbb{Z}/p\mathbb{Z}\to \mathbb{R}$ be a function with $\mathbb{E}f=0$ and $||\hat{f}|{{|}_{1}}\le 1$. Then ${{\min }_{x\in \mathbb{Z}/p\mathbb{Z}}}|f\left( x \right)|=O{{\left( \log p \right)}^{-1/3+\in }}$. One should think of $f$ as being “approximately continuous”; our result is then an “approximate intermediate value theorem”.

As an immediate consequence we show that if $A\subseteq \mathbb{Z}/p\mathbb{Z}$ is a set of cardinality $\left\lfloor {p}/{2}\; \right\rfloor $, then ${{\sum }_{r}}\widehat{|\,{{1}_{A}}}\left( r \right)|\gg {{\left( \log p \right)}^{1/3-\in }}$. This gives a result on a “$\,\bmod \,p$” analogue of Littlewood's well-known problem concerning the smallest possible ${{L}^{1}}$-norm of the Fourier transform of a set of $n$ integers.

Another application is to answer a question of Gowers. If $A\,\subseteq \,{\mathbb{Z}}/{p\mathbb{Z}}\;$ is a set of size $\left\lfloor {p}/{2}\; \right\rfloor $, then there is some $x\,\in \,\mathbb{Z}/p\mathbb{Z}$ such that

$$||A\cap \left( A+x \right)\,-\,p/4|\,=o\left( p \right).$$