An ergodic Szemerédi theorem for IP-systems and combinatorial theory (Q1084210)

This paper is a continuation of the authors' research on Szemerédi's theorem, or, in the ergodic theoretic framework, an extension of the multiple recurrence theorem to IP-systems of (commuting) transformations [J. Anal. Math. 34, 275-291 (1978; Zbl 0426.28014)]. Let \(T_ 1,T_ 2,...\) be commuting transformations and \(T_{\alpha}=T_{i_ 1}T_{i_ 2}...T_{i_ k}(\alpha =(i_ 1<i_ 2...<i_ k),k\geq 1).\) Then the family \(\{T_{\alpha}\}\) is called an IP-system of transformations. In this set up the multiple recurrence theorem has this formulation: Let \(\{T_{\alpha}^{(j)}\},j=1,...,\ell,\) be \(\ell\) commuting IP-systems of measure preserving transformations on a probability space (X,\({\mathcal B},\mu)\). Then for each \(A\in {\mathcal B}\) with \(\mu (A)>0\) there exists an \(\alpha\) such that \(\mu (A\cap T_{\alpha}^{(1)^{-1}}(A)\cap...\cap T_{\alpha}^{(\ell)^{- 1}}(A))>0.\) The special structure of IP-sets permits to study some combinatorial problems related to other structures than integer lattices (as in the earlier result). Here we mention three of these results. 1) Let \((\vartheta_{\alpha})\) be an IP-system obtained from a sequence of homomorphisms \(G\to G^*\) between two commutative groups G and \(G^*\). If G is finite and if \(L\subset G^*\) is of positive density then for some \(\alpha\), L contains a coset of \(\vartheta_{\alpha}(G)\) in \(G^*.\) 2) If V is a countably infinite dimensional vector space over a finite field and if \(L\subset V\) has positive density, then L contains affine subspaces of every dimension. 3) For any \(\delta >0\) and \(k\in {\mathbb{N}}\) there is a finite set \(\Sigma\) of similar k point configurations in \({\mathbb{R}}^ 2\) such that if A is any measurable subset of the unit square of measure \(>\delta,\) then A contains a translate of one of the configurations in \(\Sigma\). The multiple recurrence theorem is a special case of a more general theorem (the Main theorem), which, to a certain extent is proved following the pattern of the ergodic theoretic version of Szemerédi's theorem, including the use of Hindman's theorem and the theorem of Hale-Jewett.