Analysis on fractals. Paper from the 29th Brazilian mathematics colloquium -- 29\(^{\text o}\) Colóquio Brasileiro de Matemática, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, July 22 -- August 2, 2013 (Q2848112)

The author of this short monograph gives a basic introduction to the properties of the Laplacian on the Sierpiński triangle \(K\). As prerequisites are stated a course in ordinary differential equations and a course on measure theory. The monograph is divided into four chapters. The construction of the Sierpiński triangle and some foundational concepts of fractal geometry such as Hausdorff measure and dimension, and the Hutchinson operator are given in Chapter 1. Starting with a discrete version of the Laplace operator in \(\mathbb{R}^d\) and then on finite graphs, the author defines the Laplacian on \(K\) in Chapter 2. Topics such as the Dirichlet principle, energy forms, the resistance metric on \(K\), harmonic functions and Green's theorem are also presented. Chapter 3 is devoted to functional analysis on the Sirepiński triangle \(K\). In particular, the Sobolev spaces \(\mathcal{H}_1 (K)\) and \(\mathcal{H}_1^0 (K)\) are introduced. The former consists of all continuous functions \(f:K\to \mathbb R\) whose energy form \(\mathcal{E}\) is finite and the latter of all functions in \(\mathcal{H}_1 (K)\) that vanish on the three outmost vertices of \(K\). Harmonic extensions and a Laplacian on \(\mathcal{H}_1\) are also investigated. Partial differential equations on \(K\) are considered in Chapter 4. There, the Poisson equation on \(K\), energy solutions of the heat equation, and the existence and uniqueness of energy solutions are presented.