Degree reduction and graininess for Kakeya-type sets in \(\mathbb{R}^3\) (Q726764)

In [Adv. Math. 225, No. 5, 2828--2839 (2010; Zbl 1202.52022)], the author and \textit{N. H. Katz} proved some results regarding the combinatorics of a finite set of lines in the 3-dimensional space \({\mathbb R}^3\), by using the polynomial method. In the paper under review, the author is able to adapt some ideas contained in the above mentioned work in order to show results for cylindrical tubes instead of lines in \({\mathbb R}^3\). Thus he proves that if \({\mathfrak T}\) is a set of tubes in \({\mathbb R}^3\) with length \(N\) and radius 1 satisfying that (i) the union of the cylinders has volume \(N^{3-\sigma}\), (ii) most points in the union are contained in three tubes of \({\mathfrak T}\) pointing in quantitatively different directions, then in a typical ball of radius \(N^{\sigma}\) the union of the tubes resembles a collection of rectangular slabs of dimensions \(1\times N^{\sigma}\times N^{\sigma}\).