An application of ergodic theory to a problem in geometric Ramsey theory (Q1969006)

A basic result in geometric Ramsey theory states that a subset of the plane with positive asymptotic density must contain all large distances. Similar results do not hold for any configurations larger than lines, but results can be recovered if small errors are permitted: \textit{H. Fürstenberg}, \textit{Y. Katznelson} and \textit{B. Weiss} [Mathematics of Ramsey Theory, Coll. Pap. Symp. Graph Theory, Prague/Czech., Algorithm. Combin. 5, 184--198 (1990; Zbl 0738.28013)] showed that if \(E\) has positive asymptotic density, then for any \(\delta>0\) the \(\delta\)-thickening of \(E\) contains any sufficiently large dilate of a given triangle. Here this result is generalized to \({\mathbb R}^k\), where it is shown that if \(E\subset{\mathbb R}^k\) has positive asymptotic density, and \(u_1,\dots,u_{k+1}\) are affinely independent, then for any \(\delta>0\), if \(\ell\) is large enough, then the \(\delta\)-thickening of \(E\) contains a set congruent to \(\{0,\ell u_1,\dots,\ell u_{k+1}\}\). The method is to translate the problem into ergodic theory.