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Nikos Frantzikinakis

Publications and source records attributed to Nikos Frantzikinakis.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
arXiv2019

Furstenberg systems of bounded multiplicative functions and applications

We prove a structural result for measure preserving systems naturally associated with any finite collection of multiplicative functions that take values on the complex unit disc. We show that these systems have no irrational spectrum and their building blocks are Bernoulli systems and infinite-step nilsystems. One consequence of our structural result is that strongly aperiodic multiplicative functions satisfy the logarithmically averaged variant of the disjointness conjecture of Sarnak for a wide class of zero entropy topological dynamical systems, which includes all uniquely ergodic ones. We deduce that aperiodic multiplicative functions with values plus or minus one have super-linear block growth. Another consequence of our structural result is that products of shifts of arbitrary multiplicative functions with values on the unit disc do not correlate with any totally ergodic deterministic sequence of zero mean. Our methodology is based primarily on techniques developed in a previous article of the authors where analogous results were proved for the Möbius and the Liouville function. A new ingredient needed is a result obtained recently by Tao and Teräväinen related to the odd order cases of the Chowla conjecture.

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arXiv2019

The logarithmic Sarnak conjecture for ergodic weights

The Möbius disjointness conjecture of Sarnak states that the Möbius function does not correlate with any bounded sequence of complex numbers arising from a topological dynamical system with zero topological entropy. We verify the logarithmically averaged variant of this conjecture for a large class of systems, which includes all uniquely ergodic systems with zero entropy. One consequence of our results is that the Liouville function has super-linear block growth. Our proof uses a disjointness argument and the key ingredient is a structural result for measure preserving systems naturally associated with the Möbius and the Liouville function. We prove that such systems have no irrational spectrum and their building blocks are infinite-step nilsystems and Bernoulli systems. To establish this structural result we make a connection with a problem of purely ergodic nature via some identities recently obtained by Tao. In addition to an ergodic structural result of Host and Kra, our analysis is guided by the notion of strong stationarity which was introduced by Furstenberg and Katznelson in the early 90's and naturally plays a central role in the structural analysis of measure preserving systems associated with multiplicative functions.

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arXiv2017

Ergodicity of the Liouville system implies the Chowla conjecture

The Chowla conjecture asserts that the values of the Liouville function form a normal sequence of plus and minus ones. Reinterpreted in the language of ergodic theory it asserts that the Liouville function is generic for the Bernoulli measure on the space of sequences with values plus or minus one. We show that these statements are implied by the much weaker hypothesis that the Liouville function is generic for an ergodic measure. We also give variants of this result related to a conjecture of Elliott on correlations of multiplicative functions with values on the unit circle. Our argument has an ergodic flavor and combines recent results in analytic number theory, finitistic and infinitary decomposition results involving uniformity seminorms, and qualitative equidistribution results on nilmanifolds.

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arXiv2017

Multiple recurrence for non-commuting transformations along rationally independent polynomials

We prove a multiple recurrence result for arbitrary measure-preserving transformations along polynomials in two variables of the form $m+p_i(n)$, with rationally independent $p_i$'s with zero constant term. This is in contrast to the single variable case, in which even double recurrence fails unless the transformations generate a virtually nilpotent group. The proof involves reduction to nilfactors and an equidistribution result on nilmanifolds.

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arXiv2017

An averaged Chowla and Elliott conjecture along independent polynomials

We generalize a result of Matomäki, Radziwiłł, and Tao, by proving an averaged version of a conjecture of Chowla and a conjecture of Elliott regarding correlations of the Liouville function, or more general bounded multiplicative functions, with shifts given by independent polynomials in several variables. A new feature is that we recast the problem in ergodic terms and use a multiple ergodic theorem to prove it; its hypothesis is verified using recent results by Matomäki and Radziwiłł on mean values of multiplicative functions on typical short intervals. We deduce several consequences about patterns that can be found on the range of various arithmetic sequences along shifts of independent polynomials.

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arXiv2016

Under recurrence in the Khintchine recurrence theorem

The Khintchine recurrence theorem asserts that on a measure preserving system, for every set $A$ and $\varepsilon>0$, we have $μ(A\cap T^{-n}A)\geq μ(A)^2-\varepsilon$ for infinitely many $n\in \mathbb{N}$. We show that there are systems having under-recurrent sets $A$, in the sense that the inequality $μ(A\cap T^{-n}A)< μ(A)^2$ holds for every $n\in \mathbb{N}$. In particular, all ergodic systems of positive entropy have under-recurrent sets. On the other hand, answering a question of V.~Bergelson, we show that not all mixing systems have under-recurrent sets. We also study variants of these problems where the previous strict inequality is reversed, and deduce that under-recurrence is a much more rare phenomenon than over-recurrence. Finally, we study related problems pertaining to multiple recurrence and derive some interesting combinatorial consequences.

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arXiv2016

Some open problems on multiple ergodic averages

We survey some recent developments and give a list of open problems regarding multiple recurrence and convergence phenomena of $\mathbb{Z}^d$ actions in ergodic theory and related applications in combinatorics and number theory.

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arXiv2016

Weighted multiple ergodic averages and correlation sequences

We study mean convergence results for weighted multiple ergodic averages defined by commuting transformations with iterates given by integer polynomials in several variables. Roughly speaking, we prove that a bounded sequence is a good universal weight for mean convergence of such averages if and only if the averages of this sequence times any nilsequence converge. Key role in the proof play two decomposition results of independent interest. The first states that every bounded sequence in several variables satisfying some regularity conditions is a sum of a nilsequence and a sequence that has small uniformity norm (this generalizes a result of the second author and B. Kra); and the second states that every multiple correlation sequence in several variables is a sum of a nilsequence and a sequence that is small in uniform density (this generalizes a result of the first author). Furthermore, we use the previous results in order to establish mean convergence and recurrence results for a variety of sequences of dynamical and arithmetic origin and give some combinatorial implications.

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arXiv2016

Higher order Fourier analysis of multiplicative functions and applications

We prove a structure theorem for multiplicative functions which states that an arbitrary bounded multiplicative function can be decomposed into two terms, one that is approximately periodic and another that has small Gowers uniformity norm of an arbitrary degree. The proof uses tools from higher order Fourier analysis and some soft number theoretic input that comes in the form of an orthogonality criterion of Kátai. We use variants of this structure theorem to derive applications of number theoretic and combinatorial flavor: $(i)$ we give simple necessary and sufficient conditions for the Gowers norms (over $\mathbb{N}$) of a bounded multiplicative function to be zero, $(ii)$ generalizing a classical result of Daboussi and Delange we prove asymptotic orthogonality of multiplicative functions to "irrational" nilsequences, $(iii)$ we prove that for certain polynomials in two variables all "aperiodic" multiplicative functions satisfy Chowla's zero mean conjecture, $(iv)$ we give the first partition regularity results for homogeneous quadratic equations in three variables showing for example that on every partition of the integers into finitely many cells there exist distinct $x,y$ belonging to the same cell and $λ\in \mathbb{N}$ such that $16x^2+9y^2=λ^2$ and the same holds for the equation $x^2-xy+y^2=λ^2$.

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arXiv2016

Asymptotics for multilinear averages of multiplicative functions

A celebrated result of Halász describes the asymptotic behavior of the arithmetic mean of an arbitrary multiplicative function with values on the unit disc. We extend this result to multilinear averages of multiplicative functions providing similar asymptotics, thus verifying a two dimensional variant of a conjecture of Elliott. As a consequence, we get several convergence results for such multilinear expressions, one of which generalizes a well known convergence result of Wirsing. The key ingredients are a recent structural result for bounded multiplicative functions proved by the authors and the mean value theorem of Halász.

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arXiv2015

Multiple ergodic theorems for arithmetic sets

We establish results with an arithmetic flavor that generalize the polynomial multidimensional Szemeredi theorem and related multiple recurrence and convergence results in ergodic theory. For instance, we show that in all these statements we can restrict the implicit parameter to those integers that have an even number of distinct prime factors, or satisfy any other congruence condition. In order to obtain these refinements we study the limiting behavior of some closely related multiple ergodic averages with weights given by appropriately chosen multiplicative functions. These averages are then analysed using a recent structural result for bounded multiplicative functions proved by the authors.

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arXiv2015

Ergodic averages of commuting transformations with distinct degree polynomial iterates

We prove mean convergence, as $N\to\infty$, for the multiple ergodic averages $\frac{1}{N}\sum_{n=1}^N f_1(T_1^{p_1(n)}x)... f_\ell(T_\ell^{p_\ell(n)}x)$, where $p_1,...,p_\ell$ are integer polynomials with distinct degrees, and $T_1,...,T_\ell$ are commuting, invertible measure preserving transformations, acting on the same probability space. This establishes several cases of a conjecture of Bergelson and Leibman, that complement the case of linear polynomials, recently established by Tao. Furthermore, we show that, unlike the case of linear polynomials, for polynomials of distinct degrees, the corresponding characteristic factors are mixtures of inverse limits of nilsystems. We use this particular structure, together with some equidistribution results on nilmanifolds, to give an application to multiple recurrence and a corresponding one to combinatorics.

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arXiv2015

Multiple correlation sequences and nilsequences

We study the structure of multiple correlation sequences defined by measure preserving actions of commuting transformations. When the iterates of the transformations are integer polynomials we prove that any such correlation sequence is the sum of a nilsequence and an error term that is small in uniform density; this was previously known only for measure preserving actions of a single transformation. We then use this decomposition result to give convergence criteria for multiple ergodic averages involving iterates that grow linearly, and prove the rather surprising fact that for such sequences, convergence results for actions of commuting transformations follow automatically from the special case of actions of a single transformation. Our proof of the decomposition result differs from previous works of V. Bergelson, B. Host, B. Kra, and A. Leibman, as it does not rely on the theory of characteristic factors. It consists of a simple orthogonality argument and the main tool is an inverse theorem of B. Host and B. Kra for general bounded sequences.

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arXiv2014

Uniformity of multiplicative functions and partition regularity of some quadratic equations

Since the theorems of Schur and van der Waerden, numerous partition regularity results have been proved for linear equations, but progress has been scarce for non-linear ones, the hardest case being equations in three variables. We prove partition regularity for certain equations involving forms in three variables, showing for example that the equations $16x^2+9y^2=n^2$ and $x^2+y^2-xy=n^2$ are partition regular, where $n$ is allowed to vary freely in $\mathbb{N}$. For each such problem we establish a density analogue that can be formulated in ergodic terms as a recurrence property for actions by dilations on a probability space. Our key tool for establishing such recurrence properties is a decomposition result for multiplicative functions which is of independent interest. Roughly speaking, it states that the arbitrary multiplicative function of modulus 1 can be decomposed into two terms, one that is approximately periodic and another that has small Gowers uniformity norm of degree three.

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arXiv2012

Multiple recurrence and convergence for Hardy sequences of polynomial growth

We study the limiting behavior of multiple ergodic averages involving sequences of integers that satisfy some regularity conditions and have polynomial growth. We show that for "typical" choices of Hardy field functions $a(t)$ with polynomial growth, the averages $\frac{1}{N}\sum_{n=1}^N f_1(T^{[a(n)]}x)\cdot...\cdot f_\ell(T^{\ell [a(n)]}x)$ converge in the mean and we determine their limit. For example, this is the case if $a(t)=t^{3/2}, t\log{t},$ or $t^2+(\log{t})^2$. Furthermore, if ${a_1(t),...,a_\ell(t)}$ is a "typical" family of logarithmico-exponential functions of polynomial growth, then for every ergodic system, the averages $\frac{1}{N}\sum_{n=1}^N f_1(T^{[a_1(n)]}x)\cdot...\cdot f_\ell(T^{[a_\ell(n)]}x)$ converge in the mean to the product of the integrals of the corresponding functions. For example, this is the case if the functions $a_i(t)$ are given by different positive fractional powers of $t$. We deduce several results in combinatorics. We show that if $a(t)$ is a non-polynomial Hardy field function with polynomial growth, then every set of integers with positive upper density contains arithmetic progressions of the form ${m,m+[a(n)],...,m+\ell[a(n)]}$. Under suitable assumptions we get a related result concerning patterns of the form ${m, m+[a_1(n)],..., m+[a_\ell(n)]}.$

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arXiv2012

A Hardy field extension of Szemeredi's Theorem

In 1975 Szemerédi proved that a set of integers of positive upper density contains arbitrarily long arithmetic progressions. Bergelson and Leibman showed in 1996 that the common difference of the arithmetic progression can be a square, a cube, or more generally of the form $p(n)$ where $p(n)$ is any integer polynomial with zero constant term. We produce a variety of new results of this type related to sequences that are not polynomial. We show that the common difference of the progression in Szemerédi's theorem can be of the form $[n^δ]$ where $δ$ is any positive real number and $[x]$ denotes the integer part of $x$. More generally, the common difference can be of the form $[a(n)]$ where $a(x)$ is any function that is a member of a Hardy field and satisfies $a(x)/x^k\to \infty$ and $a(x)/x^{k+1}\to 0$ for some non-negative integer $k$. The proof combines a new structural result for Hardy sequences, techniques from ergodic theory, and some recent equidistribution results of sequences on nilmanifolds.

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arXiv2012

Equidistribution of sparse sequences on nilmanifolds

We study equidistribution properties of nil-orbits $(b^nx)_{n\in\N}$ when the parameter $n$ is restricted to the range of some sparse sequence that is not necessarily polynomial. For example, we show that if $X=G/Γ$ is a nilmanifold, $b\in G$ is an ergodic nilrotation, and $c\in \R\setminus \Z$ is positive, then the sequence $(b^{[n^c]}x)_{n\in\N}$ is equidistributed in $X$ for every $x\in X$. This is also the case when $n^c$ is replaced with $a(n)$, where $a(t)$ is a function that belongs to some Hardy field, has polynomial growth, and stays logarithmically away from polynomials, and when it is replaced with a random sequence of integers with sub-exponential growth. Similar results have been established by Boshernitzan when $X$ is the circle.

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