254A, Notes 8: The microstructure of approximate groups
Updated: 2011-11-06 17:22:36
A common theme in mathematical analysis (particularly in analysis of a “geometric” or “statistical” flavour) is the interplay between “macroscopic” and “microscopic” scales. These terms are somewhat vague and imprecise, and their interpretation depends on the context and also on one’s choice of normalisations, but if one uses a “macroscopic” normalisation, “macroscopic” scales correspond to [...]

As was observed elsewhere, Diophantine equations are quite finicky: slight modifications may lead from a solvable equation with no solutions. Methods that work for one equation may prove useless for a very similar equation. Here I would like to give another example of that phenomenon