Fractals and the monadic second order theory of one successor

Publication date 27 November 2023

Abstract: We show that if

X

is virtually any classical fractal subset of

m a t h b b R^{n}

, then

(m a t h b b R, <, +, X)

interprets the monadic second order theory of

(m a t h b b N, + 1)

. This result is sharp in the sense that the standard model of the monadic second order theory of

(m a t h b b N, + 1)

is known to interpret

(m a t h b b R, <, +, X)

for various classical fractals

X

including the middle-thirds Cantor set and the Sierpinski carpet. Let

X s u b s e t e q m a t h b b R^{n}

be closed and nonempty. We show that if the

C^{k}

-smooth points of

X

are not dense in

X

for some

k g e q 1

, then

(m a t h b b R, <, +, X)

interprets the monadic second order theory of

(m a t h b b N, + 1)

. The same conclusion holds if the packing dimension of

X

is strictly greater than the topological dimension of

X

and

X

has no affine points.

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