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An inverse theorem for the uniformity seminorms associated with the action of $F^ω$

Let $\F$ a finite field. We show that the universal characteristic factor for the Gowers-Host-Kra uniformity seminorm $U^k(\X)$ for an ergodic action $(T_g)_{g \in \F^ω}$ of the infinite abelian group $\F^ω$ on a probability space $X = (X,\B,μ)$ is generated by phase polynomials $ϕ: X \to S^1$ of degree less than $C(k)$ on $X$, where $C(k)$ depends only on $k$. In the case where $k \leq \charac(\F)$ we obtain the sharp result $C(k)=k$. This is a finite field counterpart of an analogous result for $\Z$ by Host and Kra. In a companion paper to this paper, we shall combine this result with a correspondence principle to establish the inverse theorem for the Gowers norm in finite fields in the high characteristic case $k \leq \charac(\F)$, with a partial result in low characteristic.