In this paper we investigate three unsolved conjectures in geometric combinatorics, namely Falconer's distance set conjecture, the dimension of Furstenburg sets, and Erdos's ring conjecture. We formulate natural $δ$-discretized versions of these conjectures and show that in a certain sense that these discretized versions are equivalent. In particular, it appears that to progress on any of these problems one must prove a quantitative statement about the existence of sub-rings of $R$ of dimension 1/2.
We prove the following variant of the Falconer conjecture in the plane. If the dimension of a compact planar set is greater than one, then the distance set with respect to almost every ellipse has positive Lebesgue measure.
We prove a point-wise and average bound for the number of incidences between points and hyper-planes in vector spaces over finite fields. While our estimates are, in general, sharp, we observe an improvement for product sets and sets contained in a sphere. We use these incidence bounds to obtain significant improvements on the arithmetic problem of covering ${\mathbb F}_q$, the finite field with q elements, by $A \cdot A+... +A \cdot A$, where A is a subset ${\mathbb F}_q$ of sufficiently large size. We also use the incidence machinery we develope and arithmetic constructions to study the Erdo…
We prove a series of results on the size of distance sets corresponding to sets in the Euclidean space. These distances are generated by bounded convex sets and the results depend explicitly on the geometry of these sets. We also use a diophantine mechanism to convert continuous results into distance set estimates for discrete point sets.
We prove some weighted Fourier restriction estimates using polynomial partitioning and refined Strichartz estimates. As application we obtain improved spherical average decay rates of the Fourier transform of fractal measures, and therefore improve the results for the Falconer distance set conjecture in three and higher dimensions.
Falconer proved that there are sets $E\subset \mathbb{R}^n$ of Hausdorff dimension $n/2$ whose distance sets $\{|x-y| : x,y\in E\}$ are null with respect to Lebesgue measure. This led to the conjecture that distance sets have positive Lebesgue measure as soon the Hausdorff dimension of $E$ is larger than $n/2$. The best results in this direction have exploited estimates that restrict the Fourier transform of measures to the $(n-1)$-dimensional sphere. Here we show that these estimates can be replaced by estimates that restrict the Fourier transform of measures to the $n$-dimensional cone. Such…
We show that if compact set $E\subset \mathbb{R}^d$ has Hausdorff dimension larger than $\frac{d}{2}+\frac{1}{4}$, where $d\geq 4$ is an even integer, then the distance set of $E$ has positive Lebesgue measure. This improves the previously best known result towards Falconer's distance set conjecture in even dimensions.
The first purpose of this paper is to provide new finite field extension theorems for paraboloids and spheres. By using the unusual good Fourier transform of the zero sphere in some specific dimensions, which has been discovered recently in the work of Iosevich, Lee, Shen, and the first and second listed authors (2018), we provide a new $L^2\to L^r$ extension estimate for paraboloids in dimensions $d=4k+3$ and $q\equiv 3\mod 4$, which improves significantly the recent exponent obtained by the first listed author. In the case of spheres, we introduce a way of using \textit{the first association…
Let $S \subset {\mathbb R}^d$ be contained in the unit ball. Let $Δ(S)=\{||a-b||:a,b \in S\}$, the Euclidean distance set of $S$. Falconer conjectured that the $Δ(S)$ has positive Lebesque measure if the Hausdorff dimension of $S$ is greater than $\frac{d}{2}$. He also produced an example, based on the integer lattice, showing that the exponent $\frac{d}{2}$ cannot be improved. In this paper we prove the Falconer distance conjecture for this class of sets based on the integer lattice. In dimensions four and higher we attain the endpoint by proving that the Lebesgue measure of the resulting dis…
In this paper we investigate the Erdös/Falconer distance conjecture for a natural class of sets statistically, though not necessarily arithmetically, similar to a lattice. We prove a good upper bound for spherical means that have been classically used to study this problem. We conjecture that a majorant for the spherical means suffices to prove the distance conjecture(s) in this setting. For a class of non-Euclidean distances, we show that this generally cannot be achieved, at least in dimension two, by considering integer point distributions on convex curves and surfaces. In higher dimensions…
We study multilinear generalized Radon transforms using a graph-theoretic paradigm that includes the widely studied linear case. These provide a general mechanism to study Falconer-type problems involving $(k+1)$-point configurations in geometric measure theory, with $k \ge 2$, including the distribution of simplices, volumes and angles determined by the points of fractal subsets $E \subset {\Bbb R}^d$, $d \ge 2$. If $T_k(E)$ denotes the set of noncongruent $(k+1)$-point configurations determined by $E$, we show that if the Hausdorff dimension of $E$ is greater than $d-\frac{d-1}{2k}$, then th…
We prove that if $A$ is a Borel set in the plane of equal Hausdorff and packing dimension $s>1$, then the set of pinned distances $\{ |x-y|:y\in A\}$ has full Hausdorff dimension for all $x$ outside of a set of Hausdorff dimension $1$ (in particular, for many $x\in A$). This verifies a strong variant of Falconer's distance set conjecture for sets of equal Hausdorff and packing dimension, outside the endpoint $s=1$.
On the finite field spherical restriction conjecture in four dimensions: the sharp endpoint and applications
Institute of Mathematics and Interdisciplinary Sciences, Xidian University(西安电子科技大学数学与 interdisciplinary 科学研究院);Institute of Mathematical Sciences, ShanghaiTech University(上海科技大学数学科学研究所)
A celebrated unit distance conjecture due to Erd\H os says that that the unit distances cannot arise more than $C_εn^{1+ε}$ times (for any $ε>0$) among $n$ points in the Euclidean plane (see e.g. \cite{SST84} and the references contained therein). In three dimensions, the conjectured bound is $Cn^{\frac{4}{3}}$ (see e.g. \cite{KMSS12} and \cite{Z19}). In dimensions four and higher, this problem, in its general formulation, loses meaning because the Lens example shows that one can construct a set of $n$ points in dimension $4$ and higher where the unit distance arises $\approx n^2$ times (see e…
We consider the Hausdorff dimension of the divergence set on which the pointwise convergence $\lim_{t\rightarrow 0} e^{it\sqrt{-Δ}} f(x) = f(x)$ fails when $f \in H^s(\mathbb R^d)$. We especially prove the conjecture raised by Barceló, Bennett, Carbery and Rogers \cite{BBCR} for $d=3$, and improve the previous results in higher dimensions $d\ge4$. We also show that a Strichartz type estimate for $f\to e^{it\sqrt{-Δ}} f$ with the measure $ dt\,dμ(x)$ is essentially equivalent to the estimate for the spherical average of $\widehat μ$ which has been extensively studied for the Falconer distance s…
We prove that if ${\mathcal E} \subset {\Bbb R}^{2d}$, $d \ge 2$, is an Ahlfors-David regular product set of sufficiently large Hausdorff dimension, denoted by $dim_{\mathcal H}({\mathcal E})$, and $ϕ$ is a sufficiently regular function, then the upper Minkowski dimension of the set $$ \{w \in {\mathcal E}: ϕ_l(w)=t_l; 1 \leq l \leq m \}$$ does not exceed $dim_{\mathcal H}({\mathcal E})-m$, in line with the regular value theorem from the elementary differential geometry. Our arguments are based on the mapping properties of the underlying Fourier Integral Operators and are intimately connected …
Quadratic distances in even dimensions over prime fields
Institute of Mathematics and Interdisciplinary Sciences, Xidian University(西安电子科技大学数学与交叉科学研究院);National Taiwan University(台湾大学);VNU University of Science, Hanoi, Vietnam(越南河内越南国立大学自然科学大学);Institute of Mathematical Sciences, ShanghaiTech University(上海科技大学数理学院)