On the independence number of sparser random Cayley graphs

Abstract: The Cayley sum graph $\Gamma_A$ of a set $A \subseteq \mathbb{Z}_n$ is defined to have vertex set $\mathbb{Z}_n$ and an edge between two distinct vertices $x, y \in \mathbb{Z}_n$ if $x + y \in A$. Green and Morris proved that if the set $A$ is a $p$-random subset of $\mathbb{Z}_n$ with $p = 1/2$, then the independence number of $\Gamma_A$ is asymptotically equal to $\alpha(G(n, 1/2))$ with high probability. Our main theorem is the first extension of their result to $p = o(1)$: we show that, with high probability, $$\alpha(\Gamma_A) = (1 + o(1)) \alpha(G(n, p))$$ as long as $p \ge (\log n)^{-1/80}$. One of the tools in our proof is a geometric-flavoured theorem that generalises Fre\u{i}man's lemma, the classical lower bound on the size of high dimensional sumsets. We also give a short proof of this result up to a constant factor; this version yields a much simpler proof of our main theorem at the expense of a worse constant.