Single and multiple recurrence along non-polynomial sequences (Q2180903)

The important phenomena of multiple recurrence for measure-preserving transformations discovered by \textit{H. Furstenberg} [J. Anal. Math. 31, 204--256 (1977; Zbl 0347.28016)] was extended to commuting actions and to IP-systems by \textit{H. Furstenberg} and \textit{Y. Katznelson} [J. Anal. Math. 34, 275--291 (1978; Zbl 0426.28014); ibid. 45, 117--168 (1985; Zbl 0605.28012)] and to multiple recurrence along polynomials by \textit{V. Bergelson} and \textit{A. Leibman} [J. Am. Math. Soc. 9, No. 3, 725--753 (1996; Zbl 0870.11015)]. Here a new instance of the multiple recurrence phenomenon is found, with proofs of recurrence and multiple recurrence results for a family \(\mathscr{F}\) of functions containing the so-called tempered functions and non-polynomial functions from a Hardy field with polynomial growth. It is also shown that the sets of return times along functions in \(\mathscr{F}\) are thick, meaning that they contain arbitrarily long intervals. This is a surprising contrast to the polynomial setting. An important part of the developments needed is a new result about equidistribution of sparse sequences on nilmanifolds, using ideas from the work of \textit{B. Green} and \textit{T. Tao} [Ann. Math. (2) 175, No. 2, 465--540 (2012; Zbl 1251.37012)]. Using the Furstenberg correspondence these results in multiple recurrence give rise to many new combinatorial results in the integers, one of them answering positively a question about multiple recurrence along integer parts of non-integer powers raised by \textit{N. Frantzikinakis} [Bull. Hell. Math. Soc. 60, 41--90 (2016; Zbl 1425.37004)].