Gowers inverse conjecture for the Boolean cube

From papers

Let d1d\geq 1 and let ε>0\varepsilon>0. For each n1n\geq 1, write F2n\mathbf{F}_2^n for the Boolean vector space, let f:F2n[1,1]f:\mathbf{F}_2^n\to[-1,1], let fUd(F2n)\|f\|_{U^d(\mathbf{F}_2^n)} denote its Gowers uniformity norm, and let Sd1(F2n)S_{d-1}(\mathbf{F}_2^n) be the set of Reed–Muller codes of order at most d1d-1. Gowers inverse conjecture. If fUd(F2n)ε\|f\|_{U^d(\mathbf{F}_2^n)}\geq\varepsilon, then there exists a constant δ>0\delta>0, depending only on dd and ε\varepsilon, and a code gSd1(F2n)g\in S_{d-1}(\mathbf{F}_2^n) such that

f,gL2(F2n)δ.|\langle f,g\rangle_{L^2(\mathbf{F}_2^n)}|\geq\delta.

Thus, a function with large UdU^d norm should have nontrivial correlation with a Reed–Muller code of order at most d1d-1. The conjecture describes the structured objects detected by the Gowers norm on F2n\mathbf{F}_2^n; it is known in low-degree cases, while the conjecture for d>3d>3 remains open because of the large number of relevant Reed–Muller codes and the resulting lack of Fourier-type orthogonality.

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Sources & referencesView supporting material

Primary source

Terence Tao, “Structure and randomness in combinatorics”, arXiv:0707.4269 (2007).

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