Group actions and a multi-parameter Falconer distance problem

Abstract: In this paper we study the following multi-parameter variant of the celebrated Falconer distance problem. Given

e x t b f d = (d_{1}, d_{2}, d o t s, d_{e l l}) i n m a t h b b N^{e l l}

with

d_{1} + d_{2} + d o t s + d_{e l l} = d

and

E s u b s e t e q m a t h b b R^{d}

, we define

Delta_{{ extbf{d}}}(E) = left{ left(|x^{(1)}-y^{(1)}|,ldots,|x^{(ell)}-y^{(ell)}| ight) : x,y in E ight} subseteq mathbb{R}^{ell},

where for

x i n m a t h b b R^{d}

we write

x = l e f t (x^{(1)}, d o t s, x^{(e l l)} i g h t)

with

x^{(i)} i n m a t h b b R^{d_{i}}

. We ask how large does the Hausdorff dimension of

E

need to be to ensure that the

e l l

-dimensional Lebesgue measure of

D e l t a_{e x t b f d} (E)

is positive? We prove that if

2 l e q d_{i}

for

1 l e q i l e q e l l

, then the conclusion holds provided

dim(E)>d-frac{min d_i}{2}+frac{1}{3}.

We also note that, by previous constructions, the conclusion does not in general hold if

dim(E)<d-frac{min d_i}{2}.

A group action derivation of a suitable Mattila integral plays an important role in the argument.

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