Arithmetic progressions - an operator theoretic view (Q1942793)

Motivated by the celebrated Green-Tao theorem on the existence of arbitrarily long arithmetic progressions in the primes [\textit{B. Green} and \textit{T. Tao}, Ann. Math. (2) 167, No.~2, 481--547 (2008; Zbl 1191.11025)], the authors present a discussion of the use of operator theoretic techniques, through an ergodic theoretic approach, to solve certain problems in number theory. They mention some interesting facts in this subject, including Furstenberg's ergodic theoretic proof of Szemerédi's theorem [\textit{H. Furstenberg}, J. Anal. Math. 31, 204--256 (1977; Zbl 0347.28016)]. In particular, they present a proof of Roth's theorem (resp.\ of the Furstenberg-Sárközy theorem) on the existence of arithmetic progressions of length \(3\) (resp.\ on the existence of pairs of the form \(a, a+n^2\)) in every set \(A \subset \mathbb{N}\) with positive upper density [\textit{K. F. Roth}, C. R. Acad. Sci., Paris 234, 388--390 (1952; Zbl 0046.04302); \textit{H. Furstenberg}, Recurrence in ergodic theory and combinatorial number theory. Princeton University Press (1981; Zbl 0459.28023)].