Twisted patterns in large subsets of \(\mathbb{Z}^N\) (Q2403295)

Summary: Let \(E\subset\mathbb{Z}^N\) be a set of positive upper Banach density, and let \(\Gamma<\mathrm{GL}_N(\mathbb{Z})\) be a ``sufficiently large'' subgroup. We show in this paper that for each positive integer \(m\) there exists a positive integer \(k\) with the following property: For every \(\{a_1,\ldots,a_m\}\subset k\cdot\mathbb{Z}^N\), there are \(\gamma_1,\ldots,\gamma_m\in\Gamma\) and \(b\in E\) such that \[ \gamma_i\cdot a_i\in E-b,\quad\text{for all }i=1,\ldots,m. \] We use this ``twisted'' multiple recurrence result to study images of \(E-b\) under various \(\Gamma\)-invariant maps. For instance, if \(N\geq3\) and \(Q\) is an integer quadratic form on \(\mathbb{Z}^N\) of signature \((p,q)\) with \(p,q\geq1\) and \(p+q\geq3\), then our twisted multiple recurrence theorem applied to the group \(\Gamma=\mathrm{SO}(Q)(\mathbb{Z})\) shows that \[ k^2Q(F)\subset Q(E-b), \] for every \(F\subset k\cdot\mathbb{Z}^N\) with \(m\) elements. In the case when \(E\) is an aperiodic Bohr\(_o\) set, we can choose \(b\) to be zero and \(k=1\), and thus \(Q(\mathbb{Z}^N)\subset Q(E)\). Our result is derived from a non-conventional ergodic theorem which should be of independent interest. Important ingredients in our proofs are the recent breakthroughs by Benoist-Quint and Bourgain-Furman-Lindenstrauss-Mozes on equidistribution of random walks on automorphism groups of tori.