Volume of tubes, non polynomial behavior (Q255178)

For a compact subset \(M\) of \(\mathbb{R}^n\) and \(r>0\) let \(\bar{B}(M,r)=\{x\in\mathbb{R}^n\;|\;d(M,x)\leq r\}\) be the tube with respect to the Euclidean distance. In various cases the Lebesgue measure \(\mathcal{L}^n(\bar{B}(M,r))\) of \(\bar{B}(M,r)\) is a polynomial in \(r\). As explained by the authors, it is also of interest when \(\mathcal{L}^n(\bar{B}(M,r)\) has an ``almost'' polynomial behavior. It is known that for a wide class of compact subsets \(M\) of \(\mathbb{R}^n\) one has \(\mathcal{L}^n(\bar{B}(M,r)=\mathcal{L}^n(M)+r\mathcal{H}^{n-1}(\text{bd}\;M)+o(r)\) where \(\mathcal{H}^{n-1}(\text{bd}\;M)\) denotes the \((n-1)\)-dimensional Hausdorff measure of the boundary of \(M\). \textit{M. Zähle} [Math. Nachr. 119, 327--339 (1984; Zbl 0553.60014)] introduced a certain class \(U_{PR_n}\) of subsets of \(\mathbb{R}^n\) and showed that this asymptotic behavior of \(\mathcal{L}^n(\bar{B}(M,r)\) is also true for \(M\in U_{PR_n}\) if \(n=2\). The purpose of the present paper is to provide a counterexample showing that Z\(\ddot{a}\)hle's theorem cannot be generalized for any \(n\geq 3\). For this the authors prove: For every \(N\geq 2\) there is a compact set \(M\in U_{PR_3}\) such that \[ -\frac{16}{3}r^{1+\frac{1}{N}}+O(r^2)\leq \mathcal{L}^3(\bar{B}(M,r)-\mathcal{L}^3(M)-r\mathcal{H}^{2}(\text{bd}\;M) \leq -\frac{1}{3N}r^{1+\frac{1}{N}}+O(r^2). \]