A Kakeya set is a compact subset of $\mathbb{R}^n$ that contains a unit line segment pointing in every direction. The Kakeya conjecture asserts that such sets must have Hausdorff and Minkowski dimension $n$. There is a special class of Kakeya sets, called sticky Kakeya sets. Sticky Kakeya sets exhibit an approximate multi-scale self-similarity, and sets of this type played an important role in Katz, Łaba, and Tao's groundbreaking 1999 work on the Kakeya problem. We propose a special case of the Kakeya conjecture, which asserts that sticky Kakeya sets must have Hausdorff and Minkowski dimension $n$. We prove this conjecture in three dimensions.
Kakeya and Furstenberg problems for sticky sets of tubes
Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University（纽约大学柯朗数学科学研究所）；Department of Mathematics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology（麻省理工学院数学系）
Bennett, Carbery, and Tao formulated an n-linear analogue of the Kakeya conjecture in R^n. They proved the conjecture except for the endpoint case. We prove the endpoint case.
The Assouad dimension of Kakeya sets in $\mathbb{R}^3$
Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University（纽约大学柯朗数学科学研究所）；Department of Mathematics, The University of British Columbia（不列颠哥伦比亚大学数学系）
Here we show some results related with Kakeya conjecture which says that for any integer $n\geq 2$, a set containing line segments in every dimension in $\mathbb{R}^n$ has full Hausdorff dimension as well as box dimension. We proved here that the Kakeya books, which are Kakeya sets with some restrictions on positions of line segments have full box dimension. We also prove here a relation between the projection property of Kakeya sets and the Kakeya conjecture. If for any Kakeya set $K\subset\mathbb{R}^n$, the Hausdorff dimension of orthogonal projections on $k\leq n$ subspaces is independent o…
The purpose of this article is to survey the developments on the Kakeya problem in recent years, concentrating on the period after the excellent 1999 survey of Wolff, and including some recent work by the authors. We will focus on the standard Kakeya problem for line segments and not discuss other important variants (such as Kakeya estimates for circles, light rays, or $k$-planes).
A streamlined proof of the Kakeya set conjecture in $\mathbb{R}^3$
Massachusetts Institute of Technology（麻省理工学院）；New York University（纽约大学）；IHES, Université Paris-Saclay（法国高等科学研究所，巴黎萨克雷大学）；Chern Institute of Mathematics and LPMC, Nankai University（南开大学陈省身数学研究所和理论物理研究中心）；The University of British Columbia（不列颠哥伦比亚大学）
We prove $d$-linear analogues of the classical restriction and Kakeya conjectures in $\R^d$. Our approach involves obtaining monotonicity formulae pertaining to a certain evolution of families of gaussians, closely related to heat flow. We conclude by giving some applications to the corresponding variable-coefficient problems and the so-called "joints" problem, as well as presenting some $n$-linear analogues for $n<d$.
Through the use of a nonstandard version of Frostman's lemma, the notion of Hausdorff dimension is formulated in nonstandard euclidean space of arbitrary dimension. This allows for a nonstandard proof of the Kakeya conjecture in two dimensions, which can then be extended to the three-dimensional case.
Bilinear restriction estimates have been appeared in work of Bourgain, Klainerman, and Machedon. In this paper we develop the theory of these estimates (together with the analogues for Kakeya estimates). As a consequence we improve the $(L^p,L^p)$ spherical restriction theorem of Wolff from $p > 42/11$ to $p > 34/9$, and also obtain a sharp $(L^p,L^q)$ spherical restriction theorem for $q > 4 - 5/27$.
A Besicovitch set is a subset of $\R^d$ that contains a unit line segment in every direction and the famous Kakeya conjecture states that Besicovitch sets should have full dimension. We provide a number of results in support of this conjecture in a variety of contexts. Our proofs are simple and aim to give an intuitive feel for the problem. For example, we give a very simple proof that the packing and lower box-counting dimension of any Besicovitch set is at least $(d+1)/2$ (better estimates are available in the literature). We also study the `generic validity' of the Kakeya conjecture in the …
We state and prove an analogue of the Kakeya conjecture for the local field $\mathbb{F}_q(\!(t)\!)$. This extends Arsovski's result on the Kakeya conjecture to local fields of positive characteristic. We also prove the Kakeya maximal conjecture in this setting.
We prove that the Kakeya maximal conjecture is equivalent to the $Ω$-Kakeya maximal conjecture. This completes a recent result in [2] where Keleti and Math{é} proved that the Kakeya conjecture is equivalent to the $Ω$-Kakeya conjecture. Moreover, we improve concrete bound on the Hausdorff dimension of a $Ω$-Kakeya set : for any Bore set $Ω$ in S n--1 , we prove that if X $\subset$ R n contains for any e $\in$ $Ω$ a unit segment oriented along e then we have dX $\ge$ 6 11 d$Ω$ + 1 where dE denotes the Hausdorff dimension of a set E.
We adapt Guth's polynomial partitioning argument for the Fourier restriction problem to the context of the Kakeya problem. By writing out the induction argument as a recursive algorithm, additional multiscale geometric information is made available. To take advantage of this, we prove that direction-separated tubes satisfy a multiscale version of the polynomial Wolff axioms. Altogether, this yields improved bounds for the Kakeya maximal conjecture in $\mathbb{R}^n$ with $n=5$ or $n\ge 7$ and improved bounds for the Kakeya set conjecture for an infinite sequence of dimensions.
We obtain new bounds for the Kakeya maximal conjecture in most dimensions $n<100$, as well as improved bounds for the Kakeya set conjecture when $n=7$ or $9$. For this we consider Guth and Zahl's strengthened formulation of the maximal conjecture, concerning families of tubes that satisfy the polynomial Wolff axioms. Our results give improved estimates for this strengthened formulation when $n =5$ or $n \geq 7$.
We prove that all bounded subsets of $\mathbb{Q}_p^n$ containing a line segment of unit length in every direction have Hausdorff and Minkowski dimension $n$. This is the analogue of the classical Kakeya conjecture with $\mathbb{R}$ replaced by $\mathbb{Q}_p$.
The arithmetic Kakeya conjecture, formulated by Katz and Tao in 2002, is a statement about addition of finite sets. It is known to imply a form of the Kakeya conjecture, namely that the upper Minkowski dimension of a Besicovitch set in $\mathbb{R}^n$ is $n$. In this note we discuss this conjecture, giving a number of equivalent forms of it. We show that a natural finite field variant of it does hold. We also give some lower bounds.
A Kakeya set $S \subset (\mathbb{Z}/N\mathbb{Z})^n$ is a set containing a line in each direction. We show that, when $N$ is any square-free integer, the size of the smallest Kakeya set in $(\mathbb{Z}/N\mathbb{Z})^n$ is at least $C_{n,ε} N^{n - ε}$ for any $ε$ -- resolving a special case of a conjecture of Hickman and Wright. Previously, such bounds were only known for the case of prime $N$. We also show that the case of general $N$ can be reduced to lower bounding the $\mathbb{F}_p$ rank of the incidence matrix of points and hyperplanes over $(\mathbb{Z}/p^k\mathbb{Z})^n$.
We study a variety of problems about homothets of sets related to the Kakeya conjecture. In particular, we show many of these problems are equivalent to the arithmetic Kakeya conjecture of Katz and Tao. We also provide a proof that the arithmetic Kakeya conjecture implies the Kakeya conjecture for packing dimension, as this implication was previously only known for Minkowski dimension. We consider several questions analogous to the classical results of Stein and Bourgain about the Lebesgue measure of a set containing a sphere centered at every point of $[0,1]^n$, where we replace spheres by ar…
Let $A, B$, be finite subsets of an abelian group, and let $G \subset A \times B$ be such that $# A, # B, # \{a+b: (a,b) \in G \} \leq N$. We consider the question of estimating the quantity $# \{a-b: (a,b) \in G \}$. Recently Bourgain improved the trivial upper bound of $N^2$ to $N^{2-1/13}$, and applied this to the Kakeya conjecture. We improve Bourgain's estimate further to $N^{2-1/6}$, and obtain the further improvement of $N^{2-1/4}$ if we also know that $# \{a+2b: (a,b) \in G\} \leq N$. We conclude that Besicovitch sets in $\R^n$ have Hausdorff dimension at least 6n/11+5/11 and Minkowski…
In the finite field setting, we show that the restriction conjecture associated to any one of a large family of $d=2n+1$ dimensional quadratic surfaces implies the $n+1$ dimensional Kakeya conjecture (Dvir's theorem). This includes the case of the paraboloid over finite fields in which $-1$ \emph{is} a square. We are able to partially reverse this implication using the sharp Kakeya maximal operator estimates of Ellenberg, Oberlin and Tao to establish the first finite field restriction estimates beyond the Stein-Tomas exponent in this setting.
We prove the joints conjecture, showing that for any $N$ lines in ${\Bbb R}^3$, there are at most $O(N^{3 \over 2})$ points at which 3 lines intersect non-coplanarly. We also prove a conjecture of Bourgain showing that given $N^2$ lines in ${\Bbb R}^3$ so that no $N$ lines lie in the same plane and so that each line intersects a set $P$ of points in at least $N$ points then the cardinality of the set of points is $Ω(N^3)$. Both our proofs are adaptations of Dvir's argument for the finite field Kakeya problem.
We prove the discrete analogue of Kakeya conjecture over $\mathbb{R}^n$. This result suggests that a (hypothetically) low dimensional Kakeya set cannot be constructed directly from discrete configurations. We also prove a generalization which completely solves the discrete analogue of the Furstenberg set problem in all dimensions. The difference between our theorems and the (true) problems is only the (still difficult) issue of continuity since no transversality-at-incidences assumptions are imposed. The main tool of the proof is a theorem of Wongkew \cite{wongkew2003volumes} which states that…
In this dissertation we define a generalization of Kakeya sets in certain metric spaces. Kakeya sets in Euclidean spaces are sets of zero Lebesgue measure containing a segment of length one in every direction. A famous conjecture, known as Kakeya conjecture, states that the Hausdorff dimension of any Kakeya set should equal the dimension of the space. It was proved only in the plane, whereas in higher dimensions both geometric and arithmetic combinatorial methods were used to obtain partial results. In the first part of the thesis we define generalized Kakeya sets in metric spaces satisfying c…
I show that $L^{p}-L^{q}$ estimates for the Kakeya maximal function yield lower bounds for the conformal dimension of Kakeya sets, and upper bounds for how much quasisymmetries can increase the Hausdorff dimension of line segments inside Kakeya sets. Combining the known $L^{p}-L^{q}$ estimates of Wolff and Katz-Tao with the main result of the paper, the conformal dimension of Kakeya sets in $\mathbb{R}^{n}$ is at least $\max\{(n + 2)/2,(4n + 3)/7\}$. Moreover, if $f$ is a quasisymmetry from a Kakeya set $K \subset \mathbb{R}^{n}$ onto any at most $n$-dimensional metric space, the $f$-image of …
Strichartz Estimates for the Liouville Equation on Euclidean Tori and Applications to Kakeya
Laboratoire de Mathématiques et de Modélisation d'\'Evry (LaMME) Université d'\'Evry Paris-Saclay 23 Bd François Mitterrand, 91000 Évry-Courcouronnes, France
We consider Guth's approach to the Fourier restriction problem via polynomial partitioning. By writing out his induction argument as a recursive algorithm and introducing new geometric information, known as the polynomial Wolff axioms, we obtain improved bounds for the restriction conjecture, particularly in high dimensions. Consequences for the Kakeya conjecture are also considered.
Let $F$ be a finite field with characteristic greater than two. Define a \emph{Besicovitch set} in $F^4$ to be a set $P \subseteq F^4$ containing a line in every direction. The \emph{Kakeya conjecture} asserts that $|P| \approx |F|^4$. A result of Wolff establishes that $|P| \gtrsim |F|^3$. In this paper we improve this to $|P| \gtrapprox |F|^{3+\gain}$. On the other hand, we show that the bound of $|F|^3$ is sharp if we relax the assumption that the lines point in different directions. One new feature in the argument is the introduction of a small amount of basic algebraic geometry.
