We show that any automatic sequence can be separated into a structured part and a Gowers uniform part in a way that is considerably more efficient than guaranteed by the Arithmetic Regularity Lemma. For sequences produced by strongly connected and prolongable automata, the structured part is rationally almost periodic, while for general sequences the description is marginally more complicated. In particular, we show that all automatic sequences orthogonal to periodic sequences are Gowers uniform. As an application, we obtain for any $l \geq 2$ and any automatic set $A \subset \mathbb{N}_0$ lower bounds on the number of $l$-term arithmetic progressions - contained in $A$ - with a given difference. The analogous result is false for general subsets of $\mathbb{N}_0$ and progressions of length $\geq 5$.
We estimate Gowers uniformity norms for some classical automatic sequences, such as the Thue-Morse and Rudin-Shapiro sequences. The methods can also be extended to other automatic sequences. As an application, we asymptotically count arithmetic progressions in the set of integers $\leq N$ where the Thue-Morse (resp. Rudin-Shapiro) sequence takes the value $+1$.
We consider a class of two-dimensional functions f(x,y) with the property that the smallness of its rectangular norm implies the smallness of rectangular norm for f(x,x+y). Also we study a family of functions f(x,y) having a similar property for higher Gowers norms. The method based on a transference principle for a class of sums over special systems of linear equations.
This is a companion note to our paper 'A relative Szemerédi theorem', elaborating on a concluding remark. In that paper, we showed how to prove a relative Szemerédi theorem for $(r+1)$-term arithmetic progressions assuming a linear forms condition. Here we show how to replace this condition with an assumption about the Gowers uniformity norm $U^r$.
We prove estimates for the Gowers uniformity norms of functions over $\Zz/p\Zz$ which are trace functions of certain $\ell$-adic sheaves, and establish in particular a strong inverse theorem for these functions.
We prove quantitative bounds for the inverse theorem for Gowers uniformity norms $\mathsf{U}^5$ and $\mathsf{U}^6$ in $\mathbb{F}_2^n$. The proof starts from an earlier partial result of Gowers and the author which reduces the inverse problem to a study of algebraic properties of certain multilinear forms. The bulk of the work in this paper is a study of the relationship between the natural actions of $\operatorname{Sym}_4$ and $\operatorname{Sym}_5$ on the space of multilinear forms and the partition rank, using an algebraic version of regularity method. Along the way, we give a positive answ…
It is shown that there is an oscillating sequence of higher order which is not orthogonal to the class of dynamical flow with topological entropy zero. We further establish that any oscillating sequence of order $d$ is orthogonal to any $d$-nilsequence arising from the skew product on the $d$-dimensional torus $\mathbb{T}^d$. The proof yields that any oscillating sequence of higher order is orthogonal to any dynamical sequence arising from topological dynamical systems with quasi-discrete spectrum. however, we provide an example of oscillating sequence of higher order with large Gowers norms. …
A central tool in the study of systems of linear equations with integer coefficients is the Generalised von Neumann Theorem of Green and Tao. This theorem reduces the task of counting the weighted solutions of these equations to that of counting the weighted solutions for a particular family of forms, the Gowers norms $\Vert f \Vert_{U^{s+1}[N]}$ of the weight $f$. In this paper we consider systems of linear inequalities with real coefficients, and show that the number of solutions to such weighted diophantine inequalities may also be bounded by Gowers norms. Furthermore, we provide a necessar…
In this paper we investigate the uniform distribution properties of polynomials in many variables and bounded degree over a fixed finite field F of prime order. Our main result is that a polynomial P : F^n -> F is poorly-distributed only if P is determined by the values of a few polynomials of lower degree, in which case we say that P has small rank. We give several applications of this result, paying particular attention to consequences for the theory of the so-called Gowers norms. We establish an inverse result for the Gowers U^{d+1}-norm of functions of the form f(x)= e_F(P(x)), where P : F…
(This text is a survey written for the Bourbaki seminar on the work of F. Manners.) Gowers uniformity norms are the central objects of higher order Fourier analysis, one of the cornerstones of additive combinatorics, and play an important role in both Gowers' proof of Szemerédi's theorem and the Green-Tao theorem. The inverse theorem states that if a function has a large uniformity norm, which is a robust combinatorial measure of structure, then it must correlate with a nilsequence, which is a highly structured algebraic object. This was proved in a qualitative sense by Green, Tao, and Ziegler…
Let $μ$ be the Möbius function and let $k \geq 1$. We prove that the Gowers $U^k$-norm of $μ$ restricted to progressions $\{n \leq X: n\equiv a_q\pmod{q}\}$ is $o(1)$ on average over $q\leq X^{1/2-σ}$ for any $σ> 0$, where $a_q\pmod{q}$ is an arbitrary residue class with $(a_q,q) = 1$. This generalizes the Bombieri-Vinogradov inequality for $μ$, which corresponds to the special case $k=1$.
In this note we announce the proof of the inverse conjecture for the Gowers U^{s+1}[N]-norm for all s => 3; this is new for s => 4, the cases s = 1,2,3 having been previously established. More precisely we outline a proof (details of which will appear in a forthcoming paper) that if f : [N] -> [-1,1] is a function with || f ||_{U^{s+1}[N]} => δthen there is a bounded-complexity s-step nilsequence F(g(n)Γ) which correlates with f, where the bounds on the complexity and correlation depend only on s and δ. From previous results, this conjecture implies the Hardy-Littlewood prime tuples conjecture…
We prove the so-called inverse conjecture for the Gowers U^{s+1}-norm in the case s = 3 (the cases s < 3 being established in previous literature). That is, we establish that if f : [N] -> C is a function with |f(n)| <= 1 for all n and || f ||_{U^4} >= δthen there is a bounded complexity 3-step nilsequence F(g(n)Γ) which correlates with f. The approach seems to generalise so as to prove the inverse conjecture for s >= 4 as well, and a longer paper will follow concerning this. By combining this with several previous papers of the first two authors one obtains the generalised Hardy-Littlewood pr…
Let $G$ be a finite-dimensional vector space over a prime field $\mathbb{F}_p$ with some subspaces $H_1, \dots, H_k$. Let $f \colon G \to \mathbb{C}$ be a function. Generalizing the notion of Gowers uniformity norms, Austin introduced directional Gowers uniformity norms of $f$ over $(H_1, \dots, H_k)$ as \[\|f\|_{\mathsf{U}(H_1, \dots, H_k)}^{2^k} = \mathbb{E}_{x \in G,h_1 \in H_1, \dots, h_k \in H_k} \partial_{h_1} \dots \partial_{h_k} f(x)\] where $\partial_u f(x) \colon= f(x + u) \overline{f(x)}$ is the discrete multiplicative derivative. Suppose that $G$ is a direct sum of subspaces $G = U…
We show that, under some mild hypotheses, the Gowers uniformity norms (both in the additive and in the hypergraph setting) are essentially equivalent to certain weaker norms which are easier to understand. We present two applications of this equivalence: a variant of the Koopman--von Neumann decomposition, and a proof of the relative inverse theorem for the Gowers $U^s[N]$-norm using a norm-type pseudorandomness condition.
Let $P_1,\dots,P_k \colon {\bf Z} \to {\bf Z}$ be polynomials of degree at most $d$ for some $d \geq 1$, with the degree $d$ coefficients all distinct, and admissible in the sense that for every prime $p$, there exists integers $n,m$ such that $n+P_1(m),\dots,n+P_k(m)$ are all not divisible by $p$. We show that there exist infinitely many natural numbers $n,m$ such that $n+P_1(m),\dots,n+P_k(m)$ are simultaneously prime, generalizing a previous result of the authors, which was restricted to the special case $P_1(0)=\dots=P_k(0)=0$ (though it allowed for the top degree coefficients to coincide)…
We obtain a polynomial upper bound in the finite-field version of the multidimensional polynomial Szemerédi theorem for distinct-degree polynomials. That is, if $P_1, ..., P_t$ are nonconstant integer polynomials of distinct degrees and $v_1, ..., v_t$ are nonzero vectors in $\mathbb{F}_p^D$, we show that each subset of $\mathbb{F}_p^D$ lacking a nontrivial configuration of the form $$ x, x + v_1 P_1(y), ..., x + v_t P_t(y)$$ has at most $O(p^{D-c})$ elements. In doing so, we apply the notion of Gowers norms along a vector adapted from ergodic theory, which extends the classical concept of Gow…
We show that any $q$-multiplicative sequence which is \emph{oscillating} of order $1$, i.e.\ does not correlate with linear phase functions $e^{2πi nα}$ ($α\in \mathbb{R})$, is Gowers uniform of all orders, and hence in particular does not correlate with polynomial phase functions $e^{2πi p(n)}$ ($p \in \mathbb{R}[x]$). Quantitatively, we show that any $q$-multiplicative sequence which is of Gelfond type of order 1 is automatically of Gelfond type of all orders. Consequently, any such $q$-multiplicative sequence is a good weight for ergodic theorems. We also obtain combinatorial corollaries co…
A key tool in recent advances in understanding arithmetic progressions and other patterns in subsets of the integers is certain norms or seminorms. One example is the norms on $\Z/N\Z$ introduced by Gowers in his proof of Szemerédi's Theorem, used to detect uniformity of subsets of the integers. Another example is the seminorms on bounded functions in a measure preserving system (associated to the averages in Furstenberg's proof of Szemerédi's Theorem) defined by the authors. For each integer $k\geq 1$, we define seminorms on $\ell^\infty(\Z)$ analogous to these norms and seminorms. We study t…
