Distance and tube zeta functions of fractals and arbitrary compact sets (Q502674)

[For the sake of brevity (without going into technical details), the reviewer finds as most illustrative of the content of this substantial paper to rearrange a few parts of its introduction.] In this article it is provided a far-reaching extension of the theory of zeta functions for fractal strings, to arbitrary fractal sets in Euclidean spaces of any dimension. The organization of the paper is outlined below. In Section 2, the distance zeta function \(\zeta_A\) of a bounded set \(A \subset \mathbb{R}^N\) is introduced. It is shown that the abscissa of (absolute) convergence of the distance zeta function \(\zeta_A\) of any bounded subset \(A\) of \(\mathbb{R}^N\) is equal to \(\overline{\mathrm{dim}}_BA\), the upper box dimension of \(A\). As a useful technical tool in the study of fractal zeta functions, the authors introduce the notion of `equivalence' between tamed Dirichlet-type integrals. In Section 3, the authors introduce the so-called `tube zeta function' \(\tilde{\zeta}_A\) of the bounded set \(A\) (closely related to the distance zeta function \(\zeta_A\)) and study its properties. Under suitable natural conditions, they show that the residue of \(\tilde{\zeta}_A\), computed at \(D= \mathrm{dim}_BA\) always lies between the lower and upper (\(D\)-dimensional) Minkowski contents of \(A\). In particular, if \(A\) is Minkowski measurable, then the residue od \(\tilde{\zeta}_A\) at \(D\) coincides with the Minkowski content of \(A\). Similar results are obtained for the distance zeta function \(\zeta_A\) of the fractal set \(A\). Finally, in Section 4 the authors introduce a class of `\(n\)-quasiperiodic sets'. The main result can be considered as a fractal set-theoretic interpretation of Baker's theorem from transcendental number theory: they construct a family of transcendentally \(n\)-quasi periodic sets, for any integer \(n \geq 2\). The main part of the paper is closed by connecting the present work to future extensions (notably, the construction of transcendentally \(\infty\)-quasiperiodic sets), the notion of hyperfractal set and, more broadly, the notion of fractality within the context of this new general theory of complex dimensions.