Gowers norms for the Thue-Morse and Rudin-Shapiro sequences (Q2326263)

The Thue-Morse sequence \(t(n)\) and the Rudin-Shapiro sequence \(r(n)\) are examples of automatic sequences, which are defined here on the alphabet \(\pm1\). The author shows that these two sequences are highly Gowers uniform, meaning that for each \(s \ge 1\) there exists \(c > 0\) such that the Gowers norm satisfies \(\|t\|_{U^s[N]} = O(N^{-c})\) and \(\|r\|_{U^s[N]} = O(N^{-c})\). As an application, the number of \(k\)-term arithmetic progressions in the set of integers up to \(N\) where the Thue-Morse (or Rudin-Shapiro) sequence takes the value \(+1\) is \(N^2/(2^{k+1}(k-1)) + O(N^{2-c})\), with \(c > 0\) depending on \(k\). In a recent preprint with \textit{J. Byszewski} and \textit{C. Müllner} [``Gowers norms for automatic sequences'', Preprint, \url{arXiv:2002.09509}], the author has generalised the results to arbitrary automatic sequences that are orthogonal to periodic sequences, confirming a conjecture at the end of the paper.