The Inverse Conjecture for the Gowers Norm over Finite Fields in Low Characteristic

By Terence Tao, T. Ziegler. Annals of Combinatorics, 2011

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We establish the inverse conjecture for the Gowers norm over finite fields, which asserts (roughly speaking) that if a bounded function \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$${f : V \rightarrow \mathbb{C}}$$\end{document} on a finite-dimensional vector space V over a finite field \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$${\mathbb{F}}$$\end{document} has large Gowers uniformity norm \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$${{\parallel{f}\parallel_{U^{s+1}(V)}}}$$\end{document} , then there exists a (non-classical) polynomial \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$${P: V \rightarrow \mathbb{T}}$$\end{document} of degree at most s such that f correlates with the phase e(P) = e2πiP. This conjecture had already been established in the “high characteristic case”, when the characteristic of \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$${\mathbb{F}}$$\end{document} is at least as large as s. Our proof relies on the weak form of the inverse conjecture established earlier by the authors and Bergelson [3], together with new results on the structure and equidistribution of non-classical polynomials, in the spirit of the work of Green and the first author [22] and of Kaufman and Lovett [28].

Subfields: Algebra and Number Theory, Discrete Mathematics and Combinatorics, Geometry and Topology

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