An application of ergodic theory to a problem in geometric Ramsey theory

DOI10.1007/BF02785583MaRDI QIDQ1969006zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Tamar Ziegler

Publication date 1999

Published in Israel Journal of Mathematics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://doi.org/10.1007/bf02785583

zbMATH Keywords

ergodic theorygeometric Ramsey theory

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Ramsey theory (05D10) General groups of measure-preserving transformations (28D15) General groups of measure-preserving transformations and dynamical systems (37A15)

Review text

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.

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Cites work

• A Szemerédi type theorem for sets of positive density in R^k
• Ergodic behavior of diagonal measures and a theorem of Szemeredi on arithmetic progressions
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 3719449 (Why is no real title available?)
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 16111 (Why is no real title available?)
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 3799981 (Why is no real title available?)
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 3357109 (Why is no real title available?)
• Plane Sets with Positive Density at Infinity Contain all Large Distances
• Recent trends in Euclidean Ramsey theory

Cited in

(7)

• Elemental methods in ergodic Ramsey theory
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 5163236 (Why is no real title available?)
• Some open problems on multiple ergodic averages
• A note on configurations in sets of positive density which occur at all large scales
• Geometrical sets with forbidden configurations
• A Furstenberg-Katznelson-Weiss type theorem on (d+1)-point configurations in sets of positive density in finite field geometries
• Simplices in large sets and directional expansion in ergodic actions

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