Maximal pronilfactors and a topological Wiener-Wintner theorem

Abstract: For strictly ergodic systems, we introduce the class of CF-Nil($k$) systems: systems for which the maximal measurable and maximal topological $k$-step pronilfactors coincide as measure-preserving systems. Weiss' theorem implies that such systems are abundant in a precise sense. We show that the CF-Nil($k$) systems are precisely the class of minimal systems for which the $k$-step nilsequence version of the Wiener-Wintner average converges everywhere. As part of the proof we establish that pronilsystems are $coalescent$ both in the measurable and topological categories. In addition, we characterize a CF-Nil($k$) system in terms of its $(k+1)$-$th\ dynamical\ cubespace$. In particular, for $k=1$, this provides for strictly ergodic systems a new condition equivalent to the property that every measurable eigenfunction has a continuous version.