Deterministic and random aspects of porosities (Q1347787)

Let \(A \subset {\mathbb R}^d\), \(x \in {\mathbb R}^d\) and \(r > 0\), define \[ \text{ por}(A, x, r) = \sup \big\{ p \geq 0|\;\exists z \in {\mathbb R}^d\text{ such that } B(z, pr) \subset B(x, r)\backslash A\big\}. \] The porosity of \(A\) is defined by \[ \text{ por}(A) = \inf_{x \in A} \text{ por}(A, x), \] where \(\text{ por}(A, x)\) is the porosity of \(A\) at \(x\) given by \[ \text{ por}(A, x) = \liminf_{r \to 0} \text{ por}(A, x, r). \] This index can be used to distinguish sets that are so alike that they cannot be separated by Hausdorff or other dimensions. In this paper under review, the authors study porosities of limit sets of finite conformal iterated function systems and certain recursive random fractals. They characterize systems with positive porosity and prove the continuity of the porosity as a function on a special class of conformal iterated function systems on the real line. For random fractals, they show that both 0-porous and 1/2-porous points are dense, that is, porosity obtains its minimum and maximum values in a dense set.