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We prove that any given subset of $\mathbb{Z}^d$ of upper density $\delta>0$ will necessarily contain, in an appropriate sense depending on $\delta$, an isometric copy of all large dilates of any given non-degenerate $k$-simplex, provided $d\geq 2k+3$. This provides an improvement in dimension, from $d\geq 2k+5$, on earlier work of Magyar. We in fact establish a stronger pinned variant. Key to our approach are new $\ell^2$ estimates for certain discrete multilinear maximal operators associated to simplices. These operators are generalizations of the discrete spherical maximal operator and may be of independent interest.

We provide a new direct proof of the $\ell^2$-boundedness of the Discrete Spherical Maximal Function that neither relies on abstract transference theorems (and hence Stein's Spherical Maximal Function Theorem) nor on delicate asymptotics for the Fourier transform of discrete spheres.

Let $\Delta=\Delta_1\times\ldots\times \Delta_d\subseteq\mathbb{R}^n$, where $\mathbb{R}^n=\mathbb{R}^{n_1}\times\cdots\times\mathbb{R}^{n_d}$ with each $\Delta_i\subseteq\mathbb{R}^{n_i}$ a non-degenerate simplex of $n_i$ points. We prove that any set $S\subseteq \mathbb{R}^n$, with $n=n_1+\cdots +n_d$ of positive upper Banach density necessarily contains an isometric copy of all sufficiently large dilates of the configuration $\Delta$. In particular any such set $S\subseteq \mathbb{R}^{2d}$ contains a $d$-dimensional cube of side length $\lambda$, for all $\lambda\geq \lambda_0(S)$. We also prove analogous results with the underlying space being the integer lattice. The proof is based on a weak hypergraph regularity lemma and an associated counting lemma developed in the context of Euclidean spaces and the integer lattice.

We establish that if $d \geq 2k + 6$ and $q$ is odd and sufficiently large with respect to $\alpha \in (0,1)$, then every set $A\subseteq \mathbf{F}_q^d$ of size $|A| \geq \alpha q^d$ will contain an isometric copy of every spherical $(k+2)$-point configuration that spans $k$ dimensions.

We discuss some of our work on averages along polynomial sequences in nilpotent groups of step 2. Our main results include boundedness of associated maximal functions and singular integrals operators, an almost everywhere pointwise convergence theorem for ergodic averages along polynomial sequences, and a nilpotent Waring theorem. Our proofs are based on analytical tools, such as a nilpotent Weyl inequality, and on complex almost-orthogonality arguments that are designed to replace Fourier transform tools, which are not available in the non-commutative nilpotent setting. In particular, we present what we call a "nilpotent circle method" that allows us to adapt some of the ideas of the classical circle method to the setting of nilpotent groups., Comment: arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:2112.03322

We establish pointwise almost everywhere convergence for ergodic averages along polynomial sequences in nilpotent groups of step two of measure-preserving transformations on $\sigma$-finite measure spaces. We also establish corresponding maximal inequalities on $L^p$ for $1

Let $\De$ be a non-degenerate simplex on $k$ vertices. We prove that there exists a threshold $s_k

We establish $L^{p_1}\times\cdots\times L^{p_k}\to L^r$ and $\ell^{p_1}\times\cdots\times \ell^{p_k}\to \ell^r$ type bounds for multilinear maximal operators associated to averages over isometric copies of a given non-degenerate $k$-simplex in both the continuous and discrete settings. These provide natural extensions of $L^p\to L^p$ and $\ell^p\to \ell^p$ bounds for Stein's spherical maximal operator and the discrete spherical maximal operator, with each of these results serving as a key ingredient of the respective proofs., Comment: Expanded to include new results in the continuous setting. Figures added. New example added

We present a sharp extension of a result of Bourgain on finding configurations of $k+1$ points in general position in measurable subset of $\mathbb{R}^d$ of positive upper density whenever $d\geq k+1$ to all proper $k$-degenerate distance graphs.

Let $\F$ be a family of $r$ integral forms of degree $k\geq 2$ and $\LL=(l_1,\ldots,l_m)$ be a family of pairwise linearly independent linear forms in $n$ variables $\x=(x_1,...,x_n)$. We study the number of solutions $\x\in[1,N]^n$ to the diophantine system $\F(\x)=\vv$ under the restriction that $l_i(\x)$ has a bounded number of prime factors for each $1\leq i\leq m$. We show that the system $\F$ have the expected number of such "almost prime" solutions under similar conditions as was established for existence of integer solutions by Birch.

We establish that any subset of $\mathbb{R}^d$ of positive upper Banach density necessarily contains an isometric copy of all sufficiently large dilates of any fixed two-dimensional rectangle provided $d\geq4$. We further present an extension of this result to configurations that are the product of two non-degenerate simplices; specifically we show that if $\Delta_{k_1}$ and $\Delta_{k_2}$ are two fixed non-degenerate simplices of $k_1+1$ and $k_2+1$ points respectively, then any subset of $\mathbb{R}^d$ of positive upper Banach density with $d\geq k_1+k_2+6$ will necessarily contain an isometric copy of all sufficiently large dilates of $\Delta_{k_1}\times\Delta_{k_2}$. A new direct proof of the fact that any subset of $\mathbb{R}^d$ of positive upper Banach density necessarily contains an isometric copy of all sufficiently large dilates of any fixed non-degenerate simplex of $k+1$ points provided $d\geq k+1$, a result originally due to Bourgain, is also presented., Comment: Substantial revisions made. To appear in Math. Proc. Cambridge Philos. Soc

Let $1 < p < \infty$, $p\neq 2$. We prove that if $d\geq d_p$ is sufficiently large, and $A\subs\R^d$ is a measurable set of positive upper density then there exists $\la_0=\la_0(A)$ such for all $\la\geq\la_0$ there are $x,y\in\R^d$ such that $\{x,x+y,x+2y\}\subs A$ and $|y|_p=\la$, where $||y||_p=(\sum_i |y_i|^p)^{1/p}$ is the $l^p(\mathbb R^d)$-norm of a point $y=(y_1,\ldots,y_d)\in\R^d$. This means that dense subsets of $\R^d$ contain 3-term progressions of all sufficiently large gaps when the gap size is measured in the $l^p$-metric. This statement is known to be false in the Euclidean $l^2$-metric as well as in the $l^1$ and $\ell^{\infty}$-metrics. One of the goals of this note is to understand this phenomenon. A distinctive feature of the proof is the use of multilinear singular integral operators, widely studied in classical time-frequency analysis, in the estimation of forms counting configurations.

In \cite{FKW} Katznelson and Weiss establish that all sufficiently large distances can always be attained between pairs of points from any given measurable subset of $\mathbb{R}^2$ of positive upper (Banach) density. A second proof of this result, as well as a stronger "pinned variant", was given by Bourgain in \cite{B} using Fourier analytic methods. In \cite{M1} the second author adapted Bourgain's Fourier analytic approach to established a result analogous to that of Katznelson and Weiss for subsets $\mathbb{Z}^d$ provided $d\geq 5$. We present a new direct proof of this discrete distance set result and generalize this to arbitrary trees. Using appropriate discrete spherical maximal function theorems we ultimately establish the natural "pinned variants" of these results.

We prove an extension of Bourgain's theorem on pinned distances in measurable subset of $\mathbb{R}^2$ of positive upper density, namely Theorem $1^\prime$ in [Bourgain, 1986], to pinned non-degenerate $k$-dimensional simplices in measurable subset of $\mathbb{R}^{d}$ of positive upper density whenever $d\geq k+2$ and $k$ is any positive integer., Comment: Minor revision made. To appear in Proc. Amer. Math. Soc

Let $\mathfrak{p}=(\mathfrak{p}_1,...,\mathfrak{p}_r)$ be a system of $r$ polynomials with integer coefficients of degree $d$ in $n$ variables $\mathbf{x}=(x_1,...,x_n)$. For a given $r$-tuple of integers, say $\mathbf{s}$, a general local to global type statement is shown via classical Hardy-Littlewood type methods which provides sufficient conditions for the solubility of $\mathfrak{p}(\mathbf{x})=\mathbf{s}$ under the condition that each of the $x_i$'s is prime.

Let $\PP^d$ be the $d$-fold direct product of the set of primes. We prove that if $A$ is a subset of $\PP^d$ of positive relative upper density then $A$ contains infinitely many "corners", that is sets of the form $\{x,x+te_1,...,x+te_d\}$ where x is an integer point and e_1,...,e_d are the standard basis vectors of the d-dimensional Euclidean space. Our argument is based on proving a removal lemma for weighted uniform hypergraphs, where the weight system is defined in terms of a pairwise linearly independent family of linear forms.

Let $A$ be a subset of positive relative upper density of $\PP^d$, the $d$-tuples of primes. We prove that $A$ contains an affine copy of any finite set $F\subs\Z^d$, which provides a natural multi-dimensional extension of the theorem of Green and Tao on the existence of long arithmetic progressions in the primes. The proof uses the hypergraph approach by assigning a pseudo-random weight system to the pattern $F$ on a $d+1$-partite hypergraph; a novel feature being that the hypergraph is no longer uniform with weights attached to lower dimensional edges. Then, instead of using a transference principle, we proceed by extending the proof of the so-called hypergraph removal lemma to our settings, relying only on the linear forms condition of Green and Tao., Comment: "via combinatorics" added in the title to link article with paper appeared in print

We consider a class of operators defined by taking averages along polynomial sequences in discrete nilpotent groups. In this paper we prove $L^2$ boundedness of discrete singular Radon transforms along general polynomial sequences in discrete nilpotent groups of step 2.

Let A be a subset of $\F_p^n$, the $n$-dimensional linear space over the prime field $\F_p$ of size at least $\de N$ $(N=p^n)$, and let $S_v=P^{-1}(v)$ be the level set of a homogeneous polynomial map $P:\F_p^n\to\F_p^R$ of degree $d$, and $v\in\F_p^R$. We show, that under appropriate conditions, the set $A$ contains at least $c\, N|S|$ arithmetic progressions of length $l\leq d$ with common difference in $S_v$, where c is a positive constant depending on $\de$, $l$ and $P$. We also show that the conditions are generic for a class of sparse algebraic sets of density $\approx N^{-\eps}$.

Let A be a subset of positive relative upper density of P^d, the d-tuples of primes. We prove that A contains an affine copy of any finite set of lattice points E, as long as E is in general position in the sense that it has at most one point on every coordinate hyperplane., Comment: 14 pages

Using Fourier analytic techniques, we prove that if $\VE>0$, $N\geq \exp\exp(C\VE^{-1}\log\VE^{-1})$ and $A\subseteq\{1,...,N\}$, then there must exist $t\in\N$ such that \[\frac{|A\cap (A+t^2)|}{N}>(\frac{|A|}{N})^2-\VE.\] This is a special case of results presented in Lyall and Magyar \cite{LM3} and we will follow those arguments closely. We hope that the exposition of this special case will serve to illuminate the key ideas contained in \cite{LM3}, where many of the analogous arguments are significantly more technical.

Let $P\in\Z[n]$ with $P(0)=0$ and $\VE>0$. We show, using Fourier analytic techniques, that if $N\geq \exp\exp(C\VE^{-1}\log\VE^{-1})$ and $A\subseteq\{1,\...,N\}$, then there must exist $n\in\N$ such that \[\frac{|A\cap (A+P(n))|}{N}>(\frac{|A|}{N})^2-\VE.\] In addition to this we also show, using the same Fourier analytic methods, that if $A\subseteq\N$, then the set of \emph{$\VE$-optimal return times} \[R(A,P,\VE)=\{n\in \N \,:\,\D(A\cap(A+P(n)))>\D(A)^2-\VE\}\] is syndetic for every $\VE>0$. Moreover, we show that $R(A,P,\VE)$ is \emph{dense} in every sufficiently long interval, in the sense that there exists an $L=L(\VE,P,A)$ such that \[|R(A,P,\VE)\cap I| \geq c(\VE,P)|I|\] for all intervals $I$ of natural numbers with $|I|\geq L$ and $c(\VE,P)=\exp\exp(-C\,\VE^{-1}\log\VE^{-1})$., Comment: Short remark added and typos fixed

Let $A\subseteq\{1,...,N\}$ and $P_1,...,P_\ell\in\Z[n]$ with $P_i(0)=0$ and $\deg P_i=k$ for every $1\leq i\leq\ell$. We show, using Fourier analytic techniques, that for every $\VE>0$, there necessarily exists $n\in\N$ such that \[\frac{|A\cap (A+P_i(n))|}{N}>(\frac{|A|}{N})^2-\VE\] holds simultaneously for $1\leq i\leq \ell$ (in other words all of the polynomial shifts of the set $A$ intersect $A$ "$\VE$-optimally"), as long as $N\geq N_1(\VE,P_1,...,P_\ell)$. The quantitative bounds obtained for $N_1$ are explicit but poor; we establish that $N_1$ may be taken to be a constant (depending only on $P_1,...,P_\ell$) times a tower of 2's of height $C_{k,\ell}^*+C\eps^{-2}$.

We prove a quantitative version of the Polynomial Szemeredi Theorem for difference sets. This result is achieved by first establishing a higher dimensional analogue of a theorem of Sarkozy (the simplest non-trivial case of the Polynomial Szemeredi Theorem asserting that the difference set of any subset of the integers of positive upper density necessarily contains a perfect square) and then applying a simple lifting argument., Comment: small corrections made