Metastability and the Furstenberg-Zimmer Tower II: Polynomial and Multidimensional Szemeredi's Theorem

TL;DR

This paper refines the Furstenberg-Zimmer structure theorem for $bZ^d$ actions, demonstrating that key combinatorial properties needed for multidimensional and polynomial Szemerédi's theorems hold at relatively low levels of the tower, reducing the complexity of the proof.

Contribution

It introduces a weaker combinatorial property sufficient for the proofs of multidimensional and polynomial Szemerédi's theorems, showing it holds at low levels of the tower.

Findings

The weaker property suffices for key proofs.

This property holds at level $oldsymbol{ omeo^{ omeo^{ omeo^{ omeo}}}}$ in the tower.

Reduces the complexity of the structural analysis in ergodic theory.

Abstract

The Furstenberg-Zimmer structure theorem for $\mathbb{Z}^d$ actions says that every measure-preserving system can be decomposed into a tower of primitive extensions. Furstenberg and Katznelson used this analysis to prove the multidimensional Szemer\'edi's theorem, and Bergelson and Liebman further generalized to a polynomial Szemer\'edi's theorem. Beleznay and Foreman showed that, in general, this tower can have any countable height. Here we show that these proofs do not require the full height of this tower; we define a weaker combinatorial property which is sufficient for these proofs, and show that it always holds at fairly low levels in the transfinite construction (specifically, $\omega^{\omega^{\omega^\omega}}$).