A discretized Severi-type theorem with applications to harmonic analysis (Q2324619)

This paper's central result is a theorem that describes the set \(\Sigma\) of lines in \(\mathbb{R}^4\) that intersect the \(\delta\)-neighborhood of the intersection of an algebraic hypersurface with the unit ball in a segment of length at least one. Given a positive real \(s\) much smaller than \(2\), a line set is said to be ``covered'' by a rectangular prism with edge lengths \(2\) and \(s\), if it intersects the prism in a segment of length at least \(2\). Th set \(\Sigma\) can be partitioned into subsets \(\Sigma_1\), \(\Sigma_2\), \(\Sigma_3\), and \(\Sigma_4\) such that for \(n \in \{1,2,3\}\) the lines in \(\Sigma_n\) are covered by few prisms of above type with exactly \(n\) edges of length \(2\). The set \(\Sigma_4\) is ``close'' to the lines contained in a quadratic hypersurface. Regarding the sets \(\Sigma_1\), \(\Sigma_2\), and \(\Sigma_3\) as ``discretizations'' of a low degree algebraic surface with few lines, a scroll of planes, and a hyperplane, this theorem can be seen as a discrete version of a classical result by Severi on irreducible algebraic hypersurfaces in \(\mathbb{R}^4\) with many lines. This analogy is confirmed by the observation that there are only ``few'' directions of lines near a low degree variety. Based on above theorem, the author improves the Kakeya maximal function estimate. This has consequences for a lower bound the Hausdorff dimension of Besicovitch sets and the restriction problem for the paraboloid in \(\mathbb{R}^4\).