Kakeya-type sets over Cantor sets of directions in \(\mathbb {R}^{d+1}\) (Q301581)

For any integer \(d\), let \(\Omega\) be a set of directions which is a compact subset of \(\mathbb{R}^{d+1}\). A tube in \(\mathbb{R}^{d+1}\) is said to be oriented in direction \(\omega\in\Omega\) if its axis is parallel to \(\omega\). Then \(\Omega\) is said to admit Kakeya-type sets if one can find a constant \(C_0\in[1,\,\infty)\) such that, for any \(N\in\mathbb{N}\), there exists a positive constant \(\delta_N\) satisfying \(\delta_N\to 0\) as \(N\to\infty\) and a collection \(P_t^{(N)}\) of \(\delta_N\)-tubes of \(\mathbb{R}^{d+1}\) with orientations in \(\Omega\) satisfying the following property: if \(E_N:=\bigcup_t P_t^{(N)}\) and \(E^\ast_N(C_0):=\bigcup_t C_0P_t^{(N)}\), then \[ \lim_{N\to\infty}\frac{|E^\ast_N(C_0)|}{|E_N|}=\infty. \] Given a Cantor-type subset \(\Omega\) of a smooth curve in \(\mathbb{R}^{d+1}\), in this interesting paper, the authors construct Kakeya-type sets admitted by \(\Omega\) by making use of probabilistic methods relying on the tree structure of \(\Omega\) and show that, for all \(p\in[1,\,\infty)\), the directional maximal operator associated with the direction set \(\Omega\) is unbounded on \(L^p(\mathbb{R}^{d+1})\). To be precise, let \(\mathcal{C}_M\subset[0,\,1]\) be a generalized Cantor-type set and \(\gamma:\;[0,\,1]\to\{1\}\times[-1,\,1]^d\) an injective map that satisfies a bi-Lipschitz condition: there exist absolute constants \( 0<c<1<C<\infty\) such that, for all \(x,\,y\in[0,\,1]\), \[ c|x-y|\leq |\gamma(x)-\gamma(y)|\leq C|x-y|. \] Let \(\Omega:=\{\gamma(t):\;t\in\mathcal{C}_M\}\). Then the authors prove that (a) the set \(\Omega\) admits Kakeya-type sets, (b) the directional maximal operators \(D_\Omega\) and \(M_\Omega\) are unbounded on \(L^p(\mathbb{R}^{d+1})\) for all \(p\in[1,\,\infty)\), where \(D_\Omega\) and \(M_\Omega\) are defined, respectively, by setting, for any locally integral \(f\) and \(x\in\mathbb{R}^{d+1}\), \[ D_\Omega f(x):=\sup_{\omega\in\Omega}\sup_{t>0}\frac{1}{2h}\int_{-h}^h|f(x+\omega t)|\,dt \] and \[ M_\Omega f(x):=\sup_{\omega\in\Omega}\sup_{P\ni x, P\parallel\omega}\frac{1}{|P|}\int_P|f(y)|\,dy, \] where the inner supremum is taken over all cylindrical tubes \(P\).