A variation of the prime k-tuples conjecture with applications to quantum limits

Let $$\mathcal {H}^{*}=\{h_1,h_2,\ldots \}$$ H ∗ = { h 1 , h 2 , … } be an ordered set of integers. We give sufficient conditions for the existence of increasing sequences of natural numbers $$a_j$$ a j and $$n_k$$ n k such that $$n_k+h_{a_j}$$ n k + h a j is a sum of two squares for every $$k\ge 1$$ k ≥ 1 and $$1\le j\le k.$$ 1 ≤ j ≤ k . Our method uses a novel modification of the Maynard–Tao sieve together with a second moment estimate. As a special case of our result, we deduce a conjecture due to D. Jakobson which has several implications for quantum limits on flat tori.