Put . By the Derivative identity for the Gowers U3 norm, the Fourier formula for the norm, and Parseval identity,
because . Let
and for every choose attaining . Then
for every , and deleting the complement of from the preceding average leaves total mass at least .
Let . The box-norm inequality applied to the selected Fourier coefficients and the cocycle identity for multiplicative derivatives gives
The left side is at least . An additive quadruple in is exactly a tuple satisfying
Therefore there are at least such quadruples, which is the Frequency graph extracted from a large Gowers U3 norm.
Write
Apply the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality first in the variable carrying and then in the variable carrying . After the invertible linear changes of variables permitted by , apply the assumed three-function estimate to the resulting multiplicative derivatives. The standard calculation gives
By the Derivative identity for the Gowers U3 norm, the last two factors are and . Taking eighth roots proves
If has density , write . Expanding , the constant term is , and the displayed inequality bounds every nonconstant term after translation of one factor by a norm of the balanced function . Thus sufficiently small makes the normalized number of four-term arithmetic progressions close to .