The geometry of Whitney's critical sets (Q2655786)

In this article, the authors are interested in Whitney sets in \(\mathbb R^n\), i.e., sets \(A\) such that there exists a \(C^1\)-function \(f:\mathbb R^n \to \mathbb R\) critical on \(A\) (meaning that the gradient of \(f\) is zero on \(A\)) but not constant on \(A\). The characterization of Whitney sets is a longstanding issue, going back to Whitney (1935), Besicovich, \dots. Actually they study Whitney sets in a more general context, which includes Whitney sets in \(\mathbb R^n\) as a special case. For a given set \(A\), they characterize completely the property of being a Whitney set in terms of what they call Whitney decomposition (which is a property of geometrical nature). They also investigate Whitney arcs and monotone Whitney arcs, and describe their geometrical structure. Finally, some applications to attractors of several IFS are given.