Furstenberg systems of Hardy field sequences and applications (Q2089923)

The author constructs dynamical models for sequences resulting from smooth non-oscillating functions with at most polynomial growth. For the sake of convenience, he assumes that these sequences belong to some Hardy field. In order to simulate the statistical behavior of sequences described by smooth functions with at most polynomial growth, the author considers measure-preserving systems, also known as Furstenberg systems. Let \(p\in \mathbb{R}[t]\) is an arbitrary polynomial with real coefficients. \textit{H. Furstenberg} [Recurrence in ergodic theory and combinatorial number theory, M. B. Porter Lectures, Rice University, Department of Mathematics, 1978. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press (1981; Zbl 0459.28023)] found that dynamical systems of algebraic nature can simulate the statistical behavior of the sequence \((p(n))\) on \(\mathbb{T}\). The author shows that the sequence \((n^{\frac{3}{2}})\) can be modeled by the non-ergodic measure-preserving system \((\mathbb{T}^{2},m_{\mathbb{T}^{2}}, S)\) where \(S: \mathbb{T}^{2}\to \mathbb{T}^{2}\) is defined by \(S(x,y):= (x, y + x),\ \ x, y\in \mathbb{T}\) and \(m_{\mathbb{T}^{2}}\) is the Haar measure. In this paper, such systems are called ``Furstenberg systems''. Then the exciting task of creating them for other sequences of interest in analytic number theory is considered. Let \((Y, \upsilon,S)\) be a measure-preserving system and \(g\in L^{\infty}(\upsilon)\). For typical values of \(y\in Y\), the author provides structural details on the Furstenberg systems of sequences of the type \((g(S^{[a(n)]}y))\). A large number of open problems is provided by the author.