Subsets of Euclidean space with nearly maximal Gowers norms (Q2311717)

Gowers norms were introduced by \textit{W. T. Gowers} in a paper dedicated to a new proof of Szemerédi's theorem [Geom. Funct. Anal. 11, No. 3, 465--588 (2001); Erratum 11, No. 4, 869 (2001; Zbl 1028.11005)]. The paper under review includes two new important results concerning these norms: (1) A set \(E\subset\mathbb{R}^{d}\) whose indicator function \(1_{E}\) has maximal Gowers norm, among all sets of equal measure, is an ellipsoid up to Lebesgue null sets; (2) If \(1_{E}\) has nearly maximal Gowers norm then \(E\) nearly coincides with some ellipsoid, in the sense that their symmetric difference has small Lebesgue measure.