arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Pablo Shmerkin.
Let $\lbrace f_i(x)=s_i \cdot x+t_i \rbrace$ be a self-similar IFS on $\mathbb{R}$ and let $β>1$ be a Pisot number. We prove that if $\frac{\log |s_i|}{\log β}\notin \mathbb{Q}$ for some $i$ then for every $C^1$ diffeomorphism $g$ and every non-atomic self similar measure $μ$, the measure $gμ$ is supported on numbers that are normal in base $β$.
We prove a version of Bourgain's projection theorem for parametrized families of $C^2$ maps, that refines the original statement even in the linear case. As one application, we show that if $A$ is a Borel set of Hausdorff dimension close to $1$ in $\mathbb{R}^2$ or close to $3/2$ in $\mathbb{R}^3$, then for $y\in A$ outside of a very sparse set, the pinned distance set $\{|x-y|:x\in A\}$ has Hausdorff dimension at least $1/2+c$, where $c$ is universal. Furthermore, the same holds if the distances are taken with respect to a $C^2$ norm of positive Gaussian curvature. As further applications, we obtain new bounds on the dimensions of spherical projections, and an improvement over the trivial estimate for incidences between $δ$-balls and $δ$-neighborhoods of curves in the plane, under fairly general assumptions. The proofs depend on a new multiscale decomposition of measures into ``Frostman pieces'' that may be of independent interest.
We survey the history and recent developments around two decades-old problems that continue to attract a great deal of interest: the slicing $\times 2$, $\times 3$ conjecture of H. Furstenberg in ergodic theory, and the distance set problem in geometric measure theory introduced by K. Falconer. We discuss some of the ideas behind our solution of Furstenberg's slicing conjecture, and recent progress in Falconer's problem. While these two problems are on the surface rather different, we emphasize some common themes in our approach: analyzing fractals through a combinatorial description in terms of ``branching numbers'', and viewing the problems through a ``multiscale projection'' lens.
We present several applications of the Assouad dimension, and the related quasi-Assouad dimension and Assouad spectrum, to the box and packing dimensions of orthogonal projections of sets. For example, we show that if the (quasi-)Assouad dimension of $F \subseteq \rn$ is no greater than $m$, then the box and packing dimensions of $F$ are preserved under orthogonal projections onto almost all $m$-dimensional subspaces. We also show that the threshold $m$ for the (quasi-)Assouad dimension is sharp, and bound the dimension of the exceptional set of projections strictly away from the dimension of the Grassmannian.
We investigate the box dimensions of compact sets in $\mathbb{R}^2$ that contain a unit distance in every direction (such sets may have zero Hausdorff dimension). Among other results, we show that the lower box dimension must be at least $\frac{4}{7}$ and can be as low as $\frac{2}{3}$. This quantifies in a certain sense how far the unit circle is from being a difference set.
We prove that if $α\in (0,1/2]$, then the packing dimension of a set $E\subset\mathbb{R}^2$ for which there exists a set of lines of dimension $1$ intersecting $E$ in dimension $\ge α$ is at least $1/2+α+c(α)$ for some $c(α)>0$. In particular, this holds for $α$-Furstenberg sets, that is, sets having intersection of Hausdorff dimension $\geα$ with at least one line in every direction. Together with an earlier result of T. Orponen, this provides an improvement for the packing dimension of $α$-Furstenberg sets over the "trivial" estimate for all values of $α\in (0,1)$. The proof extends to more general families of lines, and shows that the scales at which an $α$-Furstenberg set resembles a set of dimension close to $1/2+α$, if they exist, are rather sparse.
We provide quantitative estimates for the supremum of the Hausdorff dimension of sets in the real line which avoid $\varepsilon$-approximations of arithmetic progressions. Some of these estimates are in terms of Szemerédi bounds. In particular, we answer a question of Fraser, Saito and Yu (IMRN, 2019) and considerably improve their bounds. We also show that Hausdorff dimension is equivalent to box or Assouad dimension for this problem, and obtain a lower bound for Fourier dimension.
We show that non-trivial $\times N$-invariant sets in $[0,1]^d$, such as the Sierpiński carpet and the Sierpiński sponge, are tube-null, that is, they can be covered by a union of tubular neighbourhoods of lines of arbitrarily small total volume. This introduces a new class of tube-null sets of dimension strictly between $d-1$ and $d$. We utilize ergodic-theoretic methods to decompose the set into finitely many parts, each of which projects onto a set of Hausdorff dimension less than $1$ in some direction. We also discuss coverings by tubes for other self-similar sets, and present various applications.
We show that given $α\in (0, 1)$ there is a constant $c=c(α) > 0$ such that any planar $(α, 2α)$-Furstenberg set has Hausdorff dimension at least $2α+ c$. This improves several previous bounds, in particular extending a result of Katz-Tao and Bourgain. We follow the Katz-Tao approach with suitable changes, along the way clarifying, simplifying and/or quantifying many of the steps.
We present a self-contained proof of a formula for the $L^q$ dimensions of self-similar measures on the real line under exponential separation (up to the proof of an inverse theorem for the $L^q$ norm of convolutions). This is a special case of a more general result of the author from [Shmerkin, Pablo. On Furstenberg's intersection conjecture, self-similar measures, and the $L^q$ norms of convolutions. Ann. of Math., 2019], and one of the goals of this survey is to present the ideas in a simpler, but important, setting. We also review some applications of the main result to the study of Bernoulli convolutions and intersections of self-similar Cantor sets.
We prove new bounds on the dimensions of distance sets and pinned distance sets of planar sets. Among other results, we show that if $A\subset\mathbb{R}^2$ is a Borel set of Hausdorff dimension $s>1$, then its distance set has Hausdorff dimension at least $37/54\approx 0.685$. Moreover, if $s\in (1,3/2]$, then outside of a set of exceptional $y$ of Hausdorff dimension at most $1$, the pinned distance set $\{ |x-y|:x\in A\}$ has Hausdorff dimension $\ge \tfrac{2}{3}s$ and packing dimension at least $ \tfrac{1}{4}(1+s+\sqrt{3s(2-s)}) \ge 0.933$. These estimates improve upon the existing ones by Bourgain, Wolff, Peres-Schlag and Iosevich-Liu for sets of Hausdorff dimension $>1$. Our proof uses a multi-scale decomposition of measures in which, unlike previous works, we are able to choose the scales subject to certain constrains. This leads to a combinatorial problem, which is a key new ingredient of our approach, and which we solve completely by optimizing certain variation of Lipschitz functions.
The $L^q$ dimensions, for $1<q<\infty$, quantify the degree of smoothness of a measure. We study the following problem on the real line: when does the $L^q$ dimension improve under convolution? This can be seen as a variant of the well-known $L^p$-improving property. Our main result asserts that uniformly perfect measures (which include Ahlfors-regular measures as a proper subset) have the property that convolving with them results in a strict increase of the $L^q$ dimension. We also study the case $q=\infty$, which corresponds to the supremum of the Frostman exponents of the measure. We obtain consequences for repeated convolutions and for the box dimension of sumsets. Our results are derived from an inverse theorem for the $L^q$ norms of convolutions due to the second author.
We study a class of measures on the real line with a kind of self-similar structure, which we call dynamically driven self-similar measures, and contain proper self-similar measures such as Bernoulli convolutions as special cases. Our main result gives an expression for the $L^q$-dimensions of such dynamically driven self-similar measures, under certain conditions. As an application, we settle Furstenberg's long-standing conjecture on the dimension of the intersections of $\times p$ and $\times q$-invariant sets. Among several other applications, we also show that Bernoulli convolutions have an $L^q$ density for all finite $q$, outside of a zero-dimensional set of exceptions. The proof of the main result is inspired by M. Hochman's approach to the dimensions of self-similar measures and his inverse theorem for entropy. Our method can be seen as an extension of Hochman's theory from entropy to $L^q$ norms, and likewise relies on an inverse theorem for the decay of $L^q$ norms of discrete measures under convolution. This central piece of our approach may be of independent interest, and is an application of well-known methods and results in additive combinatorics: the asymmetric version of the Balog-Szemerédi-Gowers Theorem due to Tao-Vu, and some constructions of Bourgain.
We obtain new lower bounds on the Hausdorff dimension of distance sets and pinned distance sets of planar Borel sets of dimension slightly larger than $1$, improving recent estimates of Keleti and Shmerkin, and of Liu in this regime. In particular, we prove that if $A$ has Hausdorff dimension $>1$, then the set of distances spanned by points of $A$ has Hausdorff dimension at least $40/57 > 0.7$ and there are many $y\in A$ such that the pinned distance set $\{ |x-y|:x\in A\}$ has Hausdorff dimension at least $29/42$ and lower box-counting dimension at least $40/57$. We use the approach and many results from the earlier work of Keleti and Shmerkin, but incorporate estimates from the recent work of Guth, Iosevich, Ou and Wang as additional input.
We study discretized maximal operators associated to averaging over (neighborhoods of) squares in the plane and, more generally, $k$-skeletons in $\mathbb{R}^n$. Although these operators are known not to be bounded on any $L^p$, we obtain nearly sharp $L^p$ bounds for every small discretization scale. These results are motivated by, and partially extend, recent results of T. Keleti, D. Nagy and P. Shmerkin, and of R. Thornton, on sets that contain a scaled $k$-sekeleton of the unit cube with center in every point of $\mathbb{R}^n$.
We show that a set of small box counting dimension can be covered by a Hölder graph from all but a small set of directions, and give sharp bounds for the dimension of the exceptional set, improving a result of B. Hunt and V. Kaloshin. We observe that, as a consequence, Hölder graphs can have positive doubling measure, answering a question of T. Ojala and T. Rajala. We also give remarks on Hölder coverings in polar coordinates and, on the other hand, prove that a Homogenous set of small box counting dimension can be covered by a Lipschitz graph from all but a small set of directions.
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 $s=1$.
R. Kaufman and M. Tsujii proved that the Fourier transform of self-similar measures has a power decay outside of a sparse set of frequencies. We present a version of this result for homogeneous self-similar measures, with quantitative estimates, and derive several applications: (1) non-linear smooth images of homogeneous self-similar measures have a power Fourier decay, (2) convolving with a homogeneous self-similar measure increases correlation dimension by a quantitative amount, (3) the dimension and Frostman exponent of (biased) Bernoulli convolutions tend to $1$ as the contraction ratio tends to $1$, at an explicit quantitative rate.