Partition regularity of Pythagorean pairs

Abstract

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.

47 pages. Some typos corrected. Appeared in Forum of Mathematics, Pi. A correction on the weights made, we thank James Leng for pointing this out