An improved bound for the Minkowski dimension of Besicovitch sets in medium dimension (Q5955171)

A Besicovitch set (or Kakeya set) \(E\subset \mathbb R^n\) is a set which contains a unit line segment in each direction. The Kakeya conjecture is: a Besicovitch set in \(\mathbb R^n\) must have Hausdorff dimension \(n\)? This has been verified for \(n=2\) but is open otherwise. The authors treat the Minkowski dimension. The upper Minkowski dimension \(\overline{\dim}E\) is defined as \(\overline{\dim}E=n-\liminf_{\delta\to 0} \log_{\delta}|\mathcal N_\delta (E)|\), where \(\mathcal N_\delta (E)\) is the \(\delta\)-neighbourhood of \(E\). \textit{T. Wolff} showed \(\overline{\dim}E\geq {n}/{2}+1\) [Rev. Mat. Iberoam. 11, 651-674 (2000; Zbl 0848.42015)], \textit{N. H. Katz} and \textit{T. Tao} showed \(\overline{\dim}E\geq {n}/{2}+1+\frac{n-8}{14}\) \((n\geq 9)\) [Math. Res. Lett. 6, No. 5-6, 625-630 (1999; Zbl 0980.42013)], and \textit{N. H. Katz, I. Łaba} and \textit{T. Tao} showed \(\overline{\dim}E\geq {n}/{2}+1+\varepsilon_3\) for some \(\varepsilon_3>0\) \((n=3)\) [Ann. Math. (2) 152, No.~2, 383-446 (2000; Zbl 0980.42014)]. The authors show in this paper \(\overline{\dim}E\geq {n}/{2}+1+\varepsilon_n\) for some \(\varepsilon_n>0\) \((n\geq 4)\). To prove this, they use only geometric-combinatorial techniques, and does not use arithmetic combinatorics, unlike former papers.