We address a core partition regularity problem in Ramsey theory by proving that every finite coloring of the positive integers contains monochromatic Pythagorean pairs (i.e., $x,y\in {\mathbb N}$ such that $x^2\pm y^2=z^2$ for some $z\in {\mathbb N}$). We also show that partitions generated by level sets of multiplicative functions taking finitely many values always contain Pythagorean triples. Our proofs combine known Gowers uniformity properties of aperiodic multiplicative functions with a novel and rather flexible approach based on concentration estimates of multiplicative functions.

A left-variable word over an alphabet A is a word over $A \cup \{\star \}$ whose first letter is the distinguished symbol $\star $ standing for a placeholder. The ordered variable word theorem ($\mathsf {OVW}$), also known as Carlson–Simpson’s theorem, is a tree partition theorem, stating that for every finite alphabet A and every finite coloring of the words over A, there exists a word $c_0$ and an infinite sequence of left-variable words $w_1, w_2, \dots $ such that $\{ c_0 \cdot w_1[a_1] \cdot \dots \cdot w_k[a_k] : k \in \mathbb {N}, a_1, \dots , a_k \in A \}$ is monochromatic.

In this article, we prove that $\mathsf {OVW}$ is $\Pi ^0_4$-conservative over $\mathsf {RCA}_0 + \mathsf {B}\Sigma ^0_2$. This implies in particular that $\mathsf {OVW}$ does not imply $\mathsf {ACA}_0$ over $\mathsf {RCA}_0$. This is the first principle for which the only known separation from $\mathsf {ACA}_0$ involves non-standard models.

In [15], using methods from ergodic theory, a longstanding conjecture of Erdős (see [5, Page 305]) about sumsets in large subsets of the natural numbers was resolved. In this paper, we extend this result to several important classes of amenable groups, including all finitely generated virtually nilpotent groups and all abelian groups $(G,+)$ with the property that the subgroup $2G := \{g+g : g\in G\}$ has finite index. We prove that in any group G from the above classes, any $A\subset G$ with positive upper Banach density contains a shifted product set of the form $\{tb_ib_j\colon i<j\}$, for some infinite sequence $(b_n)_{n\in \mathbb {N}}$ and some $t\in G$. In fact, we show this result for all amenable groups that posses a property which we call square absolute continuity. Our results provide answers to several questions and conjectures posed in [13].

The q-colour Ramsey number of a k-uniform hypergraph H is the minimum integer N such that any q-colouring of the complete k-uniform hypergraph on N vertices contains a monochromatic copy of H. The study of these numbers is one of the central topics in Combinatorics. In 1973, Erdős and Graham asked to maximise the Ramsey number of a graph as a function of the number of its edges. Motivated by this problem, we study the analogous question for hypergaphs. For fixed $k \ge 3$ and $q \ge 2$ we prove that the largest possible q-colour Ramsey number of a k-uniform hypergraph with m edges is at most $\mathrm{tw}_k(O(\sqrt{m})),$ where tw denotes the tower function. We also present a construction showing that this bound is tight for $q \ge 4$. This resolves a problem by Conlon, Fox and Sudakov. They previously proved the upper bound for $k \geq 4$ and the lower bound for $k=3$. Although in the graph case the tightness follows simply by considering a clique of appropriate size, for higher uniformities the construction is rather involved and is obtained by using paths in expander graphs.

An extension of Szemerédi’s theorem is proved for sets of positive density in approximate lattices in general locally compact and second countable abelian groups. As a consequence, we establish a recent conjecture of Klick, Strungaru and Tcaciuc. Via a novel version of Furstenberg’s correspondence principle, which should be of independent interest, we show that our Szemerédi theorems can be deduced from a general transverse multiple recurrence theorem, which we establish using a recent work of Austin [Non-conventional ergodic averages for several commuting actions of an amenable group. J. Anal. Math. 130 (2016), 243–274].

We study density and partition properties of polynomial equations in prime variables. We consider equations of the form $a_1h(x_1) + \cdots + a_sh(x_s)=b$, where the ai and b are fixed coefficients and h is an arbitrary integer polynomial of degree d. We establish that the natural necessary conditions for this equation to have a monochromatic non-constant solution with respect to any finite colouring of the prime numbers are also sufficient when the equation has at least $(1+o(1))d^2$ variables. We similarly characterize when such equations admit solutions over any set of primes with positive relative upper density. In both cases, we obtain lower bounds for the number of monochromatic or dense solutions in primes that are of the correct order of magnitude. Our main new ingredient is a uniform lower bound on the cardinality of a prime polynomial Bohr set.

Inspired by Adler’s idea on VC minimal theories [1], we introduce VC-minimal complexity. We show that for any $N\in \mathbb {N}^{>0}$, there is $k_N>0$ such that for any finite bipartite graph $(X,Y;E)$ with VC-minimal complexity $< N$, there exist $X'\subseteq X$, $Y'\subseteq Y$ with $|X'|\geq k_N |X|$, $|Y'|\geq k_N |Y|$ such that $X'\times Y' \subseteq E$ or $X'\times Y'\cap E=\emptyset $.

We extend the Kechris–Pestov–Todorčević correspondence to weak Fraïssé categories and automorphism groups of generic objects. The new ingredient is the weak Ramsey property. We demonstrate the theory on several examples including monoid categories, the category of almost linear orders and categories of strong embeddings of trees.

Let $r_5(N)$ be the largest cardinality of a set in $\{1,\ldots,N\}$ which does not contain 5 elements in arithmetic progression. Then there exists a constant $c\in (0,1)$ such that

\[r_5(N)\ll \frac{N}{\exp\!((\!\log\log N)^{c})}.\]

$U^4$

We show that every finite coloring of the rationals contains monochromatic sets of the form $\{x,y,xy,x+y\}$.

Given a family of graphs $\mathcal{F}$ and an integer $r$, we say that a graph is $r$-Ramsey for $\mathcal{F}$ if any $r$-colouring of its edges admits a monochromatic copy of a graph from $\mathcal{F}$. The threshold for the classic Ramsey property, where $\mathcal{F}$ consists of one graph, in the binomial random graph was located in the celebrated work of Rödl and Ruciński.

In this paper, we offer a twofold generalisation to the Rödl–Ruciński theorem. First, we show that the list-colouring version of the property has the same threshold. Second, we extend this result to finite families $\mathcal{F}$, where the threshold statements might also diverge. This also confirms further special cases of the Kohayakawa–Kreuter conjecture. Along the way, we supply a short(-ish), self-contained proof of the $0$-statement of the Rödl–Ruciński theorem.

Daisies are a special type of hypergraph introduced by Bollobás, Leader and Malvenuto. An $r$-daisy determined by a pair of disjoint sets $K$ and $M$ is the $(r+|K|)$-uniform hypergraph $\{K\cup P\,{:}\, P\in M^{(r)}\}$. Bollobás, Leader and Malvenuto initiated the study of Turán type density problems for daisies. This paper deals with Ramsey numbers of daisies, which are natural generalisations of classical Ramsey numbers. We discuss upper and lower bounds for the Ramsey number of $r$-daisies and also for special cases where the size of the kernel is bounded.

A $(k+r)$-uniform hypergraph $H$ on $(k+m)$ vertices is an $(r,m,k)$-daisy if there exists a partition of the vertices $V(H)=K\cup M$ with $|K|=k$, $|M|=m$ such that the set of edges of $H$ is all the $(k+r)$-tuples $K\cup P$, where $P$ is an $r$-tuple of $M$. We obtain an $(r-2)$-iterated exponential lower bound to the Ramsey number of an $(r,m,k)$-daisy for $2$-colours. This matches the order of magnitude of the best lower bounds for the Ramsey number of a complete $r$-graph.

We prove a Khintchine-type recurrence theorem for pairs of endomorphisms of a countable discrete abelian group. As a special case of the main result, if $\Gamma $ is a countable discrete abelian group, $\varphi , \psi \in \mathrm {End}(\Gamma )$, and $\psi - \varphi $ is an injective endomorphism with finite index image, then for any ergodic measure-preserving $\Gamma $-system $( X, {\mathcal {X}}, \mu , (T_g)_{g \in \Gamma } )$, any measurable set $A \in {\mathcal {X}}$, and any ${\varepsilon }> 0$, there is a syndetic set of $g \in \Gamma$ such that $\mu ( A \cap T_{\varphi(g)}^{-1} A \cap T_{\psi(g)}^{-1} A ) > \mu(A)^3 - \varepsilon$. This generalizes the main results of Ackelsberg et al [Khintchine-type recurrence for 3-point configurations. Forum Math. Sigma 10 (2022), Paper no. e107] and essentially answers a question left open in that paper [Question 1.12; Khintchine-type recurrence for 3-point configurations. Forum Math. Sigma 10 (2022), Paper no. e107]. For the group $\Gamma = {\mathbb {Z}}^d$, the result applies to pairs of endomorphisms given by matrices whose difference is non-singular. The key ingredients in the proof are: (1) a recent result obtained jointly with Bergelson and Shalom [Khintchine-type recurrence for 3-point configurations. Forum Math. Sigma 10 (2022), Paper no. e107] that says that the relevant ergodic averages are controlled by a characteristic factor closely related to the quasi-affine (or Conze–Lesigne) factor; (2) an extension trick to reduce to systems with well-behaved (with respect to $\varphi $ and $\psi $) discrete spectrum; and (3) a description of Mackey groups associated to quasi-affine cocycles over rotational systems with well-behaved discrete spectrum.

We investigate the notion of a semi-retraction between two first-order structures (in typically different signatures) that was introduced by the second author as a link between the Ramsey property and generalized indiscernible sequences. We look at semi-retractions through a new lens establishing transfers of the Ramsey property and finite Ramsey degrees under quite general conditions that are optimal as demonstrated by counterexamples. Finally, we compare semi-retractions to the category theoretic notion of a pre-adjunction.

For graphs $G$ and $H$, the Ramsey number $r(G,H)$ is the smallest positive integer $N$ such that any red/blue edge colouring of the complete graph $K_N$ contains either a red $G$ or a blue $H$. A book $B_n$ is a graph consisting of $n$ triangles all sharing a common edge.

Recently, Conlon, Fox, and Wigderson conjectured that for any $0\lt \alpha \lt 1$, the random lower bound $r(B_{\lceil \alpha n\rceil },B_n)\ge (\sqrt{\alpha }+1)^2n+o(n)$ is not tight. In other words, there exists some constant $\beta \gt (\sqrt{\alpha }+1)^2$ such that $r(B_{\lceil \alpha n\rceil },B_n)\ge \beta n$ for all sufficiently large $n$. This conjecture holds for every $\alpha \lt 1/6$ by a result of Nikiforov and Rousseau from 2005, which says that in this range $r(B_{\lceil \alpha n\rceil },B_n)=2n+3$ for all sufficiently large $n$.

We disprove the conjecture of Conlon, Fox, and Wigderson. Indeed, we show that the random lower bound is asymptotically tight for every $1/4\leq \alpha \leq 1$. Moreover, we show that for any $1/6\leq \alpha \le 1/4$ and large $n$, $r(B_{\lceil \alpha n\rceil }, B_n)\le \left (\frac 32+3\alpha \right ) n+o(n)$, where the inequality is asymptotically tight when $\alpha =1/6$ or $1/4$. We also give a lower bound of $r(B_{\lceil \alpha n\rceil }, B_n)$ for $1/6\le \alpha \lt \frac{52-16\sqrt{3}}{121}\approx 0.2007$, showing that the random lower bound is not tight, i.e., the conjecture of Conlon, Fox, and Wigderson holds in this interval.

For many years, there have been conducting research (e.g., by Bergelson, Furstenberg, Kojman, Kubiś, Shelah, Szeptycki, Weiss) into sequentially compact spaces that are, in a sense, topological counterparts of some combinatorial theorems, for instance, Ramsey’s theorem for coloring graphs, Hindman’s finite sums theorem, and van der Waerden’s arithmetical progressions theorem. These spaces are defined with the aid of different kinds of convergences: IP-convergence, R-convergence, and ordinary convergence.

The first aim of this paper is to present a unified approach to these various types of convergences and spaces. Then, using this unified approach, we prove some general theorems about existence of the considered spaces and show that all results obtained so far in this subject can be derived from our theorems.

The second aim of this paper is to obtain new results about the specific types of these spaces. For instance, we construct a Hausdorff Hindman space that is not an $\mathcal {I}_{1/n}$-space and a Hausdorff differentially compact space that is not Hindman. Moreover, we compare Ramsey spaces with other types of spaces. For instance, we construct a Ramsey space that is not Hindman and a Hindman space that is not Ramsey.

The last aim of this paper is to provide a characterization that shows when there exists a space of one considered type that is not of the other kind. This characterization is expressed in purely combinatorial manner with the aid of the so-called Katětov order that has been extensively examined for many years so far.

This paper may interest the general audience of mathematicians as the results we obtain are on the intersection of topology, combinatorics, set theory, and number theory.

The Halpern–Läuchli theorem, a combinatorial result about trees, admits an elegant proof due to Harrington using ideas from forcing. In an attempt to distill the combinatorial essence of this proof, we isolate various partition principles about products of perfect Polish spaces. These principles yield straightforward proofs of the Halpern–Läuchli theorem, and the same forcing from Harrington’s proof can force their consistency. We also show that these principles are not ZFC theorems by showing that they put lower bounds on the size of the continuum.

It is known that in an infinite very weakly cancellative semigroup with size $\kappa $, any central set can be partitioned into $\kappa $ central sets. Furthermore, if $\kappa $ contains $\lambda $ almost disjoint sets, then any central set contains $\lambda $ almost disjoint central sets. Similar results hold for thick sets, very thick sets and piecewise syndetic sets. In this article, we investigate three other notions of largeness: quasi-central sets, C-sets, and J-sets. We obtain that the statement applies for quasi-central sets. If the semigroup is commutative, then the statement holds for C-sets. Moreover, if $\kappa ^\omega = \kappa $, then the statement holds for J-sets.