Optimal lower bounds for multiple recurrence

TL;DR

This paper investigates the size and structure of recurrence sets in ergodic systems for various polynomial and linear sequences, establishing conditions for positive density and syndeticity, and highlighting differences for different numbers of recurrence terms.

Contribution

It provides new lower bounds and conditions for the largeness of multiple recurrence sets for specific polynomial and linear sequences, extending prior results in ergodic theory.

Findings

For $k \\leq 3$, recurrence sets have positive density under certain polynomial conditions.

When $T^q$ is ergodic, recurrence sets are syndetic for linear sequences.

For $k \\geq 4$, recurrence sets can be empty for linear sequences, with special relations for $k=3$.

Abstract

Let $(X, \mathcal{B},\mu,T)$ be an ergodic measure preserving system, $A \in \mathcal{B}$ and $\epsilon>0$. We study the largeness of sets of the form \begin{equation*} \begin{split} S = \left\{ n\in\mathbb{N}\colon\mu(A\cap T^{-f_1(n)}A\cap T^{-f_2(n)}A\cap\ldots\cap T^{-f_k(n)}A)> \mu(A)^{k+1} - \epsilon \right\} \end{split} \end{equation*} for various families $\{f_1,\dots,f_k\}$ of sequences $f_i\colon \mathbb{N} \to \mathbb{N}$. For $k \leq 3$ and $f_{i}(n)=i f(n)$, we show that $S$ has positive density if $f(n)=q(p_n)$ where $q \in \mathbb{Z}[x]$ satisfies $q(1)$ or $q(-1) =0$ and $p_n$ denotes the $n$-th prime; or when $f$ is a certain Hardy field sequence. If $T^q$ is ergodic for some $q \in \mathbb{N}$, then for all $r \in \mathbb{Z}$, $S$ is syndetic if $f(n) = qn + r$. For $f_{i}(n)=a_{i}n$, where $a_{i}$ are distinct integers, we show that $S$ can be empty for $k\geq 4$, and for $k = 3$ we found an interesting relation between the largeness of $S$ and the abundance of solutions to certain linear equations in sparse sets of integers. We also provide some partial results when the $f_{i}$ are distinct polynomials.