Arithmetic Progressions Contained in Sequences with Bounded Gaps

Abstract

Van der Waerden [1, 4, 5] proved that if the nonnegative integers are partitioned into a finite number of sets, then at least one set in the partition contains arbitrarily long finite arithmetic progressions. This is equivalent to the result that a strictly increasing sequence of integers with bounded gaps contains arbitrarily long finite arithmetic progressions. Szemerèdi [3] proved the much deeper result that a sequence of integers of positive density contains arbitrarily long finite arithmetic progressions. The purpose of this note is a quantitative comparison of van der Waerden's theorem and sequences with bounded gaps.