Quantitative Besicovitch projection theorem for irregular sets of directions

Abstract

The classical Besicovitch projection theorem states that if a planar set $E$ with finite length is purely unrectifiable, then almost all orthogonal projections of $E$ have zero length. We prove a quantitative version of this result: if $E\subset\mathbb{R}^2$ is AD-regular and there exists a set of direction $G\subset \mathbb{S}^1$ with $\mathcal{H}^1(G)\gtrsim 1$ such that for every $\theta\in G$ we have $\|\pi_\theta\mathcal{H}^1|_E\|_{L^{\infty}}\lesssim 1$, then a big piece of $E$ can be covered by a Lipschitz graph $\Gamma$ with $\mathrm{Lip}(\Gamma)\lesssim 1$. The main novelty of our result is that the set of good directions $G$ is assumed to be merely measurable and large in measure, while previous results of this kind required $G$ to be an arc. As a corollary, we obtain a result on AD-regular sets which avoid a large set of directions, in the sense that the set of directions they span has a large complement. It generalizes the following easy observation: a set $E$ is contained in some Lipschitz graph if and only if the complement of the set of directions spanned by $E$ contains an arc.