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.
This is a survey on recent developments on the Hausdorff dimension of projections and intersections for general subsets of Euclidean spaces, with an emphasis on estimates of the Hausdorff dimension of exceptional sets and on restricted projection families. We shall also discuss relations between projections and Hausdorff dimension of Besicovitch sets.
A Besicovitch set is a set which contains a unit line segment in any direction. It is known that the Minkowski and Hausdorff dimensions of such a set must be greater than or equal to 5/2 in \R^3. In this paper we show that the Minkowski dimension must in fact be greater than 5/2 + εfor some absolute constant ε> 0. One observation arising from the argument is that Besicovitch sets of near-minimal dimension have to satisfy certain strong properties, which we call ``stickiness,'' ``planiness,'' and ``graininess.'' The purpose of this paper is to improve upon the known bounds for the Minkowski dim…
In response to a question raised (and answered in the negative) by Terry Tao on his blog as to whether it is possible to rotate a line segment continuously within a set of area zero, we show that there is a set of area zero in the plane within which a line segment can be rotated by a Baire-1 map.
We consider (bounded) Besicovitch sets in the Heisenberg group and prove that $L^p$ estimates for the Kakeya maximal function imply lower bounds for their Heisenberg Hausdorff dimension.
We use geometrical combinatorics arguments, including the ``hairbrush'' and x-ray arguments of Wolff and the sticky/plany/grainy analysis of Katz, Laba, and Tao, to show that Besicovitch sets in R^n have Minkowski dimension at least (n+2)/2 + \eps_n for all n > 3, where \eps_n > 0 is an absolute constant depending only on n. This complements the results of Katz, Laba, and Tao, which established the same result for n=3, and of Bourgain and Katz-Tao, arithmetic combinatorics techniques to establish the result for n > 8. In contrast to previous work, our arguments will be purely geometric and do …
We show that a typical Besicovitch set $B$ has intersections of measure zero with every line not contained in it. Moreover, every line in $B$ intersects the union of all the other lines in $B$ in a set of measure zero.
Besicovitch showed that if a set is null for the Hausdorff measure associated to a given dimension function, then it is still null for the Hausdorff measure corresponding to a smaller dimension function. We prove that this is not true for packing measures. Moreover, we consider the corresponding questions for sets of non-$σ$-finite packing measure, and for pre-packing measure instead of packing measure.
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 …
In this paper we get an estimate of Favard length of an arbitrary neighbourhood of an arbitrary self-similar Cantor set. Consider $L$ closed disjoint discs of radius $1/L$ inside the unit disc. By using linear maps of smaller disc onto the unit disc we can generate a self-similar Cantor set $G$. Then $\G=\bigcap_n\G_n$. One may then ask the rate at which the Favard length - the average over all directions of the length of the orthogonal projection onto a line in that direction - of these sets $\G_n$ decays to zero as a function of $n$. The quantitative results for the Favard length problem wer…
In this article we study Cantor sets defined by monotone sequences, in the sense of Besicovitch and Taylor. We classify these Cantor sets in terms of their h-Hausdorff and h-Packing measures, for the family of dimension functions h, and characterize this classification in terms of the underlying sequences.
We show that the set of Liouville numbers is either null or non-$σ$-finite with respect to every translation invariant Borel measure on $\RR$, in particular, with respect to every Hausdorff measure $\iH^g$ with gauge function $g$. This answers a question of D. Mauldin. We also show that some other simply defined Borel sets like non-normal or some Besicovitch-Eggleston numbers, as well as all Borel subgroups of $\RR$ that are not $F_σ$ possess the above property. We prove that, apart from some trivial cases, the Borel class, Hausdorff or packing dimension of a Borel set with no such measure on …
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 recent years, relatively sharp quantitative results in the spirit of the Besicovitch projection theorem have been obtained for self-similar sets by studying the $L^p$ norms of the "projection multiplicity" functions, $f_θ$, where $f_θ(x)$ is the number of connected components of the partial fractal set that orthogonally project in the $θ$ direction to cover $x$. In \cite{NPV}, it was shown that $n$-th partial 4-corner Cantor set with self-similar scaling factor 1/4 decays in Favard length at least as fast as $\frac{C}{n^p}$, for $p<1/6$. In \cite{BV}, this same estimate was proved for the 1…
Let $C_n$ be the $n$-th generation in the construction of the middle-half Cantor set. The Cartesian square $K_n$ of $C_n$ consists of $4^n$ squares of side-length $4^{-n}$. The chance that a long needle thrown at random in the unit square will meet $K_n$ is essentially the average length of the projections of $K_n$, also known as the Favard length of $K_n$. A classical theorem of Besicovitch implies that the Favard length of $K_n$ tends to zero. It is still an open problem to determine its exact rate of decay. Until recently, the only explicit upper bound was $\exp(- c\log_* n)$, due to Peres …
We exhibit the first explicit examples of Salem sets in $\mathbb{Q}_p$ of every dimension $0 < α< 1$ by showing that certain sets of well-approximable $p$-adic numbers are Salem sets. We construct measures supported on these sets that satisfy essentially optimal Fourier decay and upper regularity conditions, and we observe that these conditions imply that the measures satisfy strong Fourier restriction inequalities. We also partially generalize our results to higher dimensions. Our results extend theorems of Kaufman, Papadimitropoulos, and Hambrook from the real to the $p$-adic setting.
A $(d,k)$-set is a subset of $\mathbb{R}^d$ containing a $k$-dimensional unit ball of all possible orientations. Using an approach of D.~Oberlin we prove various Fourier dimension estimates for compact $(d,k)$-sets. Our main interest is in restricted $(d,k)$-sets, where the set only contains unit balls with a restricted set of possible orientations $Γ$. In this setting our estimates depend on the Hausdorff dimension of $Γ$ and can sometimes be improved if additional geometric properties of $Γ$ are assumed. We are led to consider cones and prove that the cone in $\mathbb{R}^{d+1}$ has Fourier d…
By considering a Moran-type construction of fractals on $[0,1]$, we show that for any $0\le s\le 1$, there exists some Moran fractal set, which is perfect, with Hausdorff dimension $s$ whose Fourier dimension is zero and it contains arbitrarily long arithmetic progressions.
We construct a function that lies in $L^p(\mathbb{R}^d)$ for every $p \in (1,\infty]$ and whose Fourier transform has no Lebesgue points in a Cantor set of full Hausdorff dimension. We apply Kovač's maximal restriction principle to show that the same full-dimensional set is avoided by any Borel measure satisfying a nontrivial Fourier restriction theorem. As a consequence of a near-optimal fractal restriction theorem of Łaba and Wang, we hence prove a lack of valid relations between the Hausdorff dimension of a set and the range of possible Fourier restriction exponents for measures supported i…
The Favard length of a subset of the plane is defined as the average of its orthogonal projections. This quantity is related to the probabilistic Buffon needle problem; that is, the Favard length of a set is proportional to the probability that a needle or a line that is dropped at random onto the set will intersect the set. If instead of dropping lines onto a set, we drop fixed curves, then the associated Buffon curve probability is proportional to the so-called Favard curve length. As we show in our companion paper, a Besicovitch generalized projection theorem still holds in the setting wher…
The Fourier dimension is not in general stable under finite unions of sets. Moreover, the stability of the Fourier dimension on particular pairs of sets is independent from the stability of the compact Fourier dimension.
We discuss the problem of determining the dimension of self-similar sets and measures on $\mathbf{R}$. We focus on the developments of the last four years. At the end of the paper, we survey recent results about other aspects of self-similar measures including their Fourier decay and absolute continuity.
The aim of this paper is to prove that if a planar set $A$ has a difference set $Δ(A)$ satisfying $Δ(A)\subset \Z^++s$ for suitable $s$ than $A$ has at most 3 elements. This result is motivated by the conjecture that the disk has not more than 3 orthogonal exponentials. Further, we prove that if $A$ is a set of exponentials mutually orthogonal with respect to any symmetric convex set $K$ in the plane with a smooth boundary and everywhere non-vanishing curvature, then $ # (A \cap {[-q,q]}^2) \leq C(K) q$ where $C(K)$ is a constant depending only on $K$. This extends and clarifies in the plane t…
We demonstrate $k+1$-term arithmetic progressions in certain subsets of the real line whose "higher-order Fourier dimension" is sufficiently close to 1. This Fourier dimension, introduced in previous work, is a higher-order (in the sense of Additive Combinatorics and uniformity norms) extension of the Fourier dimension of Geometric Measure Theory, and can be understood as asking that the uniformity norm of a measure, restricted to a given scale, decay as the scale increases. We further obtain quantitative information about the size and $L^p$ regularity of the set of common distances of the art…
We prove that almost all random subsets of a finite vector space are weak Salem sets (small Fourier coefficient), which extends a result of Hayes to a different probability model.
Let $\Cant_n$ be the $n$-th generation in the construction of the middle-half Cantor set. The Cartesian square $\K_n = \Cant_n \times \Cant_n$ consists of $4^n$ squares of side-length $4^{-n}$. The chance that a long needle thrown at random in the unit square will meet $\K_n$ is essentially the average length of the projections of $\K_n$, also known as the Favard length of $\K_n$. A classical theorem of Besicovitch implies that the Favard length of $\K_n$ tends to zero. It is still an open problem to determine its exact rate of decay. Until recently, the only explicit upper bound was $\exp(- c…
We obtain a Fourier dimension estimate for sets of exact approximation order introduced by Bugeaud for certain approximation functions $ψ$. This Fourier dimension estimate implies that these sets of exact approximation order contain normal numbers.
Let $f:\widehat{\mathbb{C}}\rightarrow \widehat{\mathbb{C}}$ be a hyperbolic rational map of degree $d \geq 2$, and let $J \subset \mathbb{C}$ be its Julia set. We prove that $J$ always has positive Fourier dimension. The case where $J$ is included in a circle follows from a recent work of Sahlsten and Stevens, see arXiv:2009.01703. In the case where $J$ is not included in a circle, we prove that a large family of probability measures supported on $J$ exhibit polynomial Fourier decay: our result applies in particular to the measure of maximal entropy and to the conformal measure.
We give a sufficient condition for the Fourier dimension of a countable union of sets to equal the supremum of the Fourier dimensions of the sets in the union, and show by example that the Fourier dimension is not countably stable in general. A natural approach to finite stability of the Fourier dimension for sets would be to try to prove that the Fourier dimension for measures is finitely stable, but we give an example showing that it is not in general. We also describe some situations where the Fourier dimension for measures is stable or is stable for all but one value of some parameter. Fin…
This paper considers the problem of restricting the short-time Fourier transform to domains of nonzero measure in the plane and studies sampling bounds of such systems. In particular, we give a quantitative estimate for the lower sampling bound in the case of Hermite windows and derive a sufficient condition for a large class of windows in terms of a certain planar density. On the way, we prove a Remez-type inequality for polyanalytic functions. MSC2010: 42C40, 46E15, 46E20, 42C15
In this paper we derive new upper bounds for the densities of measurable sets in R^n which avoid a finite set of prescribed distances. The new bounds come from the solution of a linear programming problem. We apply this method to obtain new upper bounds for measurable sets which avoid the unit distance in dimensions 2,..., 24. This gives new lower bounds for the measurable chromatic number in dimensions 3,..., 24. We apply it to get a new, short proof of a variant of a recent result of Bukh which in turn generalizes theorems of Furstenberg, Katznelson, Weiss and Bourgain and Falconer about set…
We construct Salem sets in $\mathbb{R}/\mathbb{Z}$ of any dimension (including $1$) which do not contain any arithmetic progressions of length $3$. Moreover, the sets can be taken to be Ahlfors regular if the dimension is less than $1$, and the measure witnessing the Fourier decay can be taken to be Frostman in the case of dimension $1$. This is in sharp contrast to the situation in the discrete setting (where Fourier uniformity is well known to imply existence of progressions), and helps clarify a result of Laba and Pramanik on pseudo-random subsets of the real line which do contain progressi…
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 …
