Special cases and equivalent forms of Katznelson's problem on recurrence

Abstract

We make three observations regarding a question popularized by Katznelson: is every subset of $\mathbb Z$ which is a set of Bohr recurrence is also a set of topological recurrence? (i) If $G$ is a countable abelian group and $E\subset G$ is an $I_0$ set, then every subset of $E-E$ which is a set of Bohr recurrence is also a set of topological recurrence. In particular every subset of $\{2^n-2^m : n,m\in \mathbb N\}$ which is a set of Bohr recurrence is a set of topological recurrence. (ii) Let $\mathbb Z^{\omega}$ be the direct sum of countably many copies of $\mathbb Z$ with standard basis $E$. If every subset of $(E-E)-(E-E)$ which is a set of Bohr recurrence is also a set of topological recurrence, then every subset of every countable abelian group which is a set of Bohr recurrence is also a set of topological recurrence. (iii) Fix a prime $p$ and let $\mathbb F_p^\omega$ be the direct sum of countably many copies of $\mathbb Z/p\mathbb Z$ with basis $(\mathbf e_i)_{i\in \mathbb N}$. If for every $p$-uniform hypergraph with vertex set $\mathbb N$ and edge set $\mathcal F$ having infinite chromatic number, the Cayley graph on $\mathbb F_p^\omega$ determined by $\{\sum_{i\in F}\mathbf e_i:F\in \mathcal F\}$ has infinite chromatic number, then every subset of $\mathbb F_p^\omega$ which is a set of Bohr recurrence is a set of topological recurrence.