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If $a$ is irrational and $b,c$ are real, the fractional parts of $a{n}^2+bn+c$ form an equidistributed sequence. In the Van der Corput lemma, every nonzero-lag correlation of $e^{2\pi im(a{n}^2+bn+c)}$ is a geometric series with irrational frequency $2mah$ and tends to zero. The Weyl criterion then applies.

Put $e(t)=e^{2\pi it}$ and let $P(n)=\theta n^k+\cdots$ be a real polynomial of degree $k\ge 2$. A standard form of Weyl inequality is: if $(a,q)=1$ and $|\theta -a/q|\le q^{-2}$, then for every $\eta >0$The implied constant is uniform in all lower coefficients. For degree one the finite geometric series bound is $|\sum e(\theta n+\beta )|\le \min (N,(2\Vert \theta \Vert {)}^{-1})$, where $\Vert t\Vert$ is distance to the nearest integer.

Here is the Weyl differencing proof. Extend $z_n=e(P(n))$ by zero outside $[1,N]$. Expanding $|\sum z_n{|}^2$ by differences of indices gives a sum of correlations ${\sum }_n{z}_{n+h}\overline{z_n}$. Repeated Cauchy-Schwarz inequality and this correlation identity yield, after $k-1$ steps, with $p=2^{k-1}$,The interval $I(\mathbf{h})$ ensures that every shifted argument remains in $[1,N]$. For completeness, the induction is the following: at stage $j$, the factor is $N^{2^j-j-1}$ and there is a sum over $j$ shifts. Squaring, Cauchy-Schwarz over those $O(N^j)$ shifts supplies $N^j$; expanding the square of each remaining interval sum introduces the next shift. The new factor is $N^{2^{j+1}-j-2}$, as asserted for stage $j+1$.

The final differenced phase is linear, of slope $k!\theta h_1\cdots h_{k-1}$. Zero products contribute $O_k(N^{k-1})$ to the sum. For nonzero products the finite geometric series bound applies. Grouping by $r=|h_1\cdots h_{k-1}|\le N^{k-1}$, the subpower bound for the divisor function bounds the number of representations by $O_{k,\rho }(N^{\rho })$ for any chosen $\rho >0$. The divisor input is elementary: for $t=k-1$, the number of ordered factorizations of $r$ is ${\prod }_{p^v\parallel r}\left(\genfrac{}{}{0ex}{}{v+t-1}{t-1}\right)$. For all sufficiently large primes this is bounded factorwise by $p^{ϵv}$, and for the finitely many smaller primes the polynomial in $v$ is bounded by a constant times $p^{ϵv}$. Multiplication gives $O_{t,ϵ}(r^{ϵ})$. ThusThe reduced denominator of $k!a/q$ is between $q/k!$ and $q$. Its approximation error is bounded by a constant depending on $k$ times the inverse square of that denominator. Split the $r$-range into blocks of length a sufficiently small fixed multiple of $q$. Within a block the values $k!\theta r$ are separated modulo one by a constant multiple of $1/q$: rational differences have spacing at least $1/q$, while the approximation error in a block difference is smaller than half that spacing. At most a bounded number of values occupy each distance interval of width $1/q$. Summing reciprocals of their ordered distances proves the reciprocal fractional-part sum near a rational estimateFor $q>N^k$, the proposed inequality follows from $|S|\le N$. Otherwise the last display and the differencing estimate giveChoose $\rho$ sufficiently small, absorb the logarithm into a further arbitrarily small power of $N$, and take $p$th roots. This proves the stated Weyl inequality.

For the recurrence assertion, a rational $a=u/v$ gives an integer $a{m}^2$ with $m=v$. For irrational $a$, Weyl differencing implies that $a{m}^2$ is an equidistributed sequence modulo one. One way to avoid a rate issue for unusually good rational approximations is to keep a fixed differencing range $H$: the Van der Corput inequality for finite scalar sequences gives, for each nonzero integer $j$, a limsup bound ${\mathrm{limsup}}_N|N^{-1}{\sum }_{m\le N}e(ja{m}^2){|}^2\ll 1/H$, because every fixed nonzero difference has irrational linear slope and its geometric average tends to zero. Let $H\to \infty$ and apply the Weyl criterion. Hence some $m$ always enters the open $ϵ$-neighborhood of zero.

Finally, $U_m=\{a\in \mathbb{R}/\mathbb{Z}:\Vert a{m}^2\Vert <ϵ\}$ are open sets covering the compact circle group. A finite subcover has a largest index $N$. That single $N$ works for every real $a$. This is uniform square recurrence on the circle; the compactness step gives existence, not an explicit quantitative bound.

Write $e(t)=e^{2\pi it}$. We first prove the needed cancellation of quadratic exponential sums, rather than invoke equidistribution without proof. The number $\sqrt{2}$ is irrational: writing it as a reduced fraction would make its numerator even from $u^2=2v^2$, and then its denominator even as well, a contradiction. Thus $2hr\sqrt{2}$ is irrational for nonzero integers $h,r$.

Fix $h\ne 0$ and set $z_n=e(h\sqrt{2}{n}^2)$ for $1\le n\le L$, extending it by zero otherwise. For integers $L\ge H\ge 1$, each term appears exactly $H$ times in the shifted sum, soFor any complex numbers $w_1,\dots ,w_J$, nonnegativity of ${\sum }_j|w_j-J^{-1}{\sum }_i{w}_i{|}^2$ gives $|{\sum }_j{w}_j{|}^2\le J{\sum }_j|w_j{|}^2$. Apply this special Cauchy-Schwarz inequality to the displayed outer sum, and then expand the inner squared modulus. This givesFor fixed $H$ and large $L$, each correlation is the geometric serieswhose absolute value is at most $2/|1-e(2hr\sqrt{2})|$, independently of $L$. This follows by multiplying the geometric sum by $1-e(2hr\sqrt{2})$; its denominator is nonzero by irrationality. Divide the inequality by $L^2$ and let $L\to \infty$, keeping $H$ fixed. It gives a limit superior at most $1/H$. Taking arbitrarily large $H$ provesThis is the quadratic instance of the Van der Corput inequality for finite scalar sequences, with its proof supplied here.

To turn cancellation into the particular approximation, put $\epsilon =10^{-8}$ and choose an integer $M>2/{\sin }^2(\pi \epsilon )$. The Fejér kernel is the explicit finite trigonometric polynomialThe expansion follows by counting pairs of indices with difference $h$. Its constant coefficient is one, so the cancellation just proved givesIf $\Vert t{\Vert }_{\mathbb{R}/\mathbb{Z}}\ge \epsilon$, the geometric-series formula givesFor all sufficiently large $L$, the displayed average exceeds $1/2$. Consequently at least one $n\in \{1,\dots ,L\}$ satisfiesIt is a positive integer, as required. Every auxiliary cancellation and kernel identity used in this existence proof has been derived; a smooth cutoff or an unproved Weyl criterion is unnecessary.

The natural expectation is orbital stability, since a spatial translation of a travelling wave is another travelling wave. Thus convergence for ordinary perturbations, when it holds, is to a suitably translated front. It also matters which perturbations are allowed in the leading edge: the zero state ahead of this front is linearly unstable, and a sufficiently shallow positive tail can select a different speed. One should not assert asymptotic stability for arbitrary disturbances without a norm and a class of initial data. The requested essential spectrum calculation is a necessary part of such an analysis, not by itself a complete nonlinear stability proof.

In the moving coordinate $z=x-ct$, write $u(x,t)=w_c(z)+v(z,t)$. Expansion of the reaction term givesThe first equation to study is its linearization,and the associated eigenvalue equation $\mathcal{L}\varphi =\lambda \varphi$. Differentiating the front equation gives $\mathcal{L}{w}_c^{\prime }=0$, the neutral translation mode whenever it belongs to the chosen function space. Ahead of the front the limiting coefficient is $k$, so in unweighted L2 space the limiting dispersion relation is $\lambda =-{\xi }^2+ic\xi +k$: its rightmost real part is positive. An exponential weight penalizes precisely these disturbances ahead of the front.

There is a small functional-analytic correction to the printed definition. Use the complete exponentially weighted L2 spaceThe additional requirement of unweighted L2 space membership in the printed set makes that set incomplete under its stated weighted norm. Indeed $v_N=1_{[-N,0]}$ belongs to the intersection and is a weighted Cauchy sequence, but its weighted limit $1_{(-\infty ,0]}$ does not belong to unweighted L2 space. The usual Hilbert space for this spectral argument is the completion $X_{\gamma }$. We use that completion explicitly, rather than treating the intersection as a complete space.

Multiplication $T_{\gamma }v=e^{\gamma z}v$ is a unitary map from $X_{\gamma }$ onto L2 space. Take the domain $T_{\gamma }^{-1}{H}^2(\mathbb{R})$ for $\mathcal{L}$. The transformed closed operator isThis follows from $T_{\gamma }{\partial }_z{T}_{\gamma }^{-1}={\partial }_z-\gamma$. The two limiting constant-coefficient dispersion relations, obtained by the Fourier transform, areIn particular the necessary strict leading-edge condition is ${\gamma }^2-c\gamma +k<0$. For $c>2\sqrt{k}$ this meansA particularly convenient choice isWith this choice there is no first derivative, and ${\mathcal{L}}_{\gamma }={\partial }_z^2+k-c^2/4-2w_c(z)$ is a self-adjoint differential operator on $H^2(\mathbb{R})$. This also avoids possible ambiguities between definitions of essential spectrum for nonnormal operators.

The relevant perturbation theorem is essential-spectrum invariance under relatively compact perturbations: if $A_0$ is a closed operator, $V:D(A_0)\to H$ is compact with respect to the graph norm, and $A_0+V$ is closed on the same domain, their Fredholm essential spectrum is the same. For self-adjoint operators this is the usual essential spectrum after removing isolated finite-multiplicity eigenvalues. To see why the theorem applies, regard $A_0-\lambda$ and $A_0+V-\lambda$ as bounded maps from the graph norm domain to $H$, and use compact perturbation invariance of Fredholm operators for each $\lambda$.

Define a step-potential comparison operatorBoth $A_0$ and ${\mathcal{L}}_{\gamma }$ are self-adjoint on $H^2(\mathbb{R})$. Their difference is multiplication byIt is relatively compact, not necessarily compact as a multiplication map on all of L2 space. To prove the needed compactness, take a sequence bounded in $H^2(\mathbb{R})$. On each bounded interval the Rellich-Kondrachov compactness theorem gives a subsequence converging in L2 space. A diagonal subsequence makes the products by $V$ converge locally. Outside a sufficiently large interval, $\Vert V{\Vert }_{\infty }$ is arbitrarily small and the sequence has a uniform L2 norm bound, so those tails are uniformly small. Thus the products converge globally in L2 space, proving graph-domain compactness.

Finally,Here is a direct verification. Its quadratic form is at most $(k-c^2/4)\Vert h{\Vert }_2^2$, so no spectrum lies above this endpoint. For every $\lambda \le k-c^2/4$, choose $\xi$ with $\lambda =k-c^2/4-{\xi }^2$. Normalized, increasingly long cutoffs of $e^{i\xi z}$, translated far to the right, have disjoint supports and satisfy $\Vert (A_0-\lambda )h_N{\Vert }_2\to 0$: differentiating the cutoff gives errors of orders $N^{-1}$ and $N^{-2}$. They converge weakly to zero. This is a singular sequence in the Weyl criterion, proving that every such $\lambda$ belongs to the essential spectrum. The relatively compact perturbation theorem therefore givesThis proves the weighted essential spectrum of a Fisher travelling front is strictly stable when $c>2\sqrt{k}$. In fact here the quadratic form gives more:Since $w_c\ge 0$, the full transformed spectrum lies below $-(c^2/4-k)$, and the evolution given by its linearization decays at least as $e^{-(c^2/4-k)t}$ in this weighted norm. This does not contradict translation invariance: the nonzero translation mode cannot lie in this weighted operator domain, since otherwise it would be a zero eigenfunction, contradicting the strictly negative quadratic-form bound. The weight restricts the permitted perturbations and excludes these neutral translations. Nor does a weighted L2 norm alone control the nonlinear remainder at $z\to -\infty$; a nonlinear theorem needs further boundedness or regularity assumptions.

At the minimal speed $c_{\ast }=2\sqrt{k}$, the best choice is $\gamma =\sqrt{k}$. Now ${\gamma }^2-c\gamma +k=(\gamma -\sqrt{k}{)}^2$, andThe essential spectrum has no positive part but touches zero; no positive exponential weight makes it strictly negative. Thus the critical front has no spectral gap and this argument gives no exponential decay rate there. Strict weighted spectral stability holds above the minimal speed; at the minimal speed it is marginal.

Write $e(t)=\exp (2\pi it)$. A sequence in the circle group is an equidistributed sequence if, for every interval $I\subseteq \mathbb{R}/\mathbb{Z}$,where $|I|$ is its normalized length. Equivalently, averages of every continuous function along the sequence tend to its circle integral. Trigonometric polynomials approximate continuous functions, and interval indicators can be squeezed between continuous functions with arbitrarily close integrals. The nonconstant additive characters have integral zero. These facts give the Weyl criterion:This is the link between equidistribution and cancellation in exponential sums.

Suppose every positive-shift difference sequence were equidistributed. Fix $m\ne 0$ and set $z_n=e(m\varphi (n))$. For every fixed $h\ge 1$, the Weyl criterion would giveThe omitted final $h$ terms change a normalized average by at most $h/N$.

Here is the needed Van der Corput inequality for finite scalar sequences. Extend $z_n$ by zero outside $[1,N]$ and average $H$ consecutive translates of the sum. Cauchy-Schwarz givesIndeed, apply Cauchy-Schwarz to $H{\sum }_n{z}_n={\sum }_t{\sum }_{j=0}^{H-1}{z}_{t-j}$ and expand the squared inner sum. Taking $N\to \infty$ first leaves a bound $1/H$; then let $H\to \infty$. Every nonzero Fourier average of $\varphi$ vanishes, so the Weyl criterion makes $\varphi$ equidistributed. This is the differencing obstruction to equidistribution. By contraposition, a non-equidistributed sequence has a non-equidistributed difference for some positive $h$, hence for some $h\ne 0$ as requested.

For $\varphi (n)=\sqrt{2}{n}^2$, the difference is ${\Delta }_h\varphi (n)=-2h\sqrt{2}n-h^2\sqrt{2}$. For any nonzero integer $m$, its exponential sum is a constant phase times a geometric progression with ratio $e(-2mh\sqrt{2})\ne 1$. Its normalized magnitude is at most $2/(N|1-e(-2mh\sqrt{2})|)$, which tends to zero. Thus every positive-shift difference is equidistributed, and the contraposition just established proves

For an increasing sequence $(n_k)$ of nonnegative integers, full-density sequence means that its range $S$ has natural density one:For a sequence $(z_n)$ in a metric space, convergence in density of a sequence to $z$ means that, for every $\epsilon >0$,In particular, a bounded nonnegative scalar sequence converging to zero in density has averages tending to zero: the average is at most $\epsilon$ plus its bound times the proportion of indices above $\epsilon$.

Here is a Hilbert space form of the Van der Corput lemma, including the density version. Suppose $\Vert u_n\Vert \le M$, and putThenSince $0\le c_h\le M^2$, it suffices for $(c_h)$ to converge to zero in density. A frequently used special case is that the correlation average tends to zero for every fixed $h\ge 1$.

To prove the lemma, extend the finite list $u_0,\dots ,u_{N-1}$ by zero outside this range, and write $S_N={\sum }_{n=0}^{N-1}{u}_n$. For $1\le H\le N$,The Cauchy-Schwarz inequality for this sum, followed by expansion of the squared Hilbert space norm, givesThe coefficient $H-h$ counts the pairs of shifts separated by $h$. Dividing by $H^2{N}^2$, bounding real parts by absolute values, and first taking the limit superior in $N$ for fixed $H$ yieldsThe right side tends to zero as $H\to \infty$ under the stated hypothesis. This proves both the lemma and its density consequence.

For the polynomial application, fix a nonzero integer $m$ and let $u_n=e^{2\pi imP(n)}\in \mathbb{C}$. For each fixed $h\ge 1$, the correlation phase is linear:Thus, with $q_h=e^{2\pi i(2mah)}$,The coefficient $2mah$ is irrational, so $q_h\ne 1$. This geometric series is bounded in modulus by $2/(N|1-q_h|)$ and tends to zero. All $c_h$ vanish, so the Van der Corput lemma gives

The Weyl criterion now shows that the fractional parts form an equidistributed sequence. For completeness, its sufficiency here follows directly: the displayed limits give the correct average for every trigonometric polynomial, including the constant term. The Stone-Weierstrass theorem extends this to every continuous function by uniform approximation. Approximating an interval's indicator function above and below by continuous functions gives its length as the limiting frequency. HenceThis proves the equidistribution of a quadratic polynomial with irrational leading coefficient using the required correlation argument.

For a bounded self-adjoint operator $L$, a spectral Weyl sequence at $\lambda$ consists of unit vectors $f_n$ with $\Vert (L-\lambda I)f_n\Vert \to 0$. Such a sequence exists exactly at points of the spectrum of a bounded operator. If no sequence exists, the shifted operator is bounded below, with closed range and zero kernel. Self-adjointness then makes its range dense, so it is invertible. This spectral criterion is different from the equidistribution Weyl criterion.

For rational $a$, a multiple of its denominator gives exact integer recurrence. For irrational $a$, Weyl differencing and the Weyl criterion give an equidistributed sequence $a{m}^2$ modulo one. Thus every parameter belongs to one of the open sets $\{a:\Vert a{m}^2\Vert <ϵ\}$. Compactness of the circle group gives a finite subcover, hence a bound $N$ uniform in $a$; no explicit rate follows from this compactness step.