Regionally proximal relation of order d is an equivalence one for minimal systems and a combinatorial consequence

By proving the minimality of face transformations acting on the diagonal points and searching the points allowed in the minimal sets, it is shown that the regionally proximal relation of order $d$, $\RP^{[d]}$, is an equivalence relation for minimal systems. Moreover, the lifting of $\RP^{[d]}$ between two minimal systems is obtained, which implies that the factor induced by $\RP^{[d]}$ is the maximal $d$-step nilfactor. The above results extend the same conclusions proved by Host, Kra and Maass for minimal distal systems. A combinatorial consequence is that if $S$ is a dynamically syndetic subset of $\Z$, then for each $d\ge 1$, $$\{(n_1,\...,n_d)\in \Z^d: n_1\ep_1+... +n_d\ep_d\in S, \ep_i\in \{0,1\}, 1\le i\le d\}$$ is syndetic. In some sense this is the topological correspondence of the result obtained by Host and Kra for positive upper Banach density subsets using ergodic methods.