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The Stein--Tomas restriction theorem is an important result in Fourier restriction theory. It gives a range of $q$ for which $L^q\to L^2$ restriction estimates hold for a given measure, in terms of the Fourier and Frostman dimensions of the measure. We generalise this result by using the Fourier spectrum; a family of dimensions that interpolate between the Fourier and Sobolev dimensions for measures. This gives us a continuum of Stein--Tomas type estimates, and optimising over this continuum gives a new $L^q\to L^2$ restriction theorem which often outperforms the Stein--Tomas result. We also provide results in the other direction by giving a range of $q$ in terms of the Fourier spectrum for which $L^q\to L^2$ restriction estimates fail, generalising an observation of Hambrook and {\L}aba. We illustrate our results with several examples, including the surface measure on the cone, the moment curve, and several fractal measures., Comment: 24 pages, 6 figures

Given an integer $d \geq 2$, $s \in (0,1]$, and $t \in [0,2(d-1)]$, suppose a set $X$ in $\mathbb{R}^d$ has the following property: there is a collection of lines of packing dimension $t$ such that every line from the collection intersects $X$ in a set of packing dimension at least $s$. We show that such sets must have packing dimension at least $\max\{s,t/2\}$ and that this bound is sharp. In particular, the special case $d=2$ solves a variant of the Furstenberg set problem for packing dimension. We also solve the upper and lower box dimension variants of the problem. In both of these cases the sharp threshold is $\max\{s,t+1-d\}$., Comment: 10 pages, results generalised to higher dimensions

The Fourier transform plays a central role in many geometric and combinatorial problems cast in vector spaces over finite fields. In general, sets with good uniform bounds for the Fourier transform are less structured, more `random', and can often be analysed more easily. In many cases obtaining good \emph{uniform} bounds is not possible, even if `most' points admit good pointwise bounds. Motivated by this, we propose a more nuanced approach where one seeks to bound the $L^p$ averages of the Fourier transform instead of only the maximum. We explore this idea by considering several examples and find that a rich theory emerges. Further, we provide various applications of this new approach; including to sumset type problems, the finite fields distance conjecture, and the problem of counting $k$-simplices inside a given set., Comment: 31 pages, 1 figure. Minor changes and references added

Iterated function systems (IFSs) are one of the most important tools for building examples of fractal sets exhibiting some kind of `approximate self-similarity'. Examples include self-similar sets, self-affine sets etc. A beautiful variant on the standard IFS model was introduced by Barnsley and Demko in 1985 where one builds an \emph{inhomogeneous} attractor by taking the closure of the orbit of a fixed compact condensation set under a given standard IFS. In this expository article I will discuss the dimension theory of inhomogeneous attractors, giving several examples and some open questions. I will focus on the upper box dimension with emphasis on how to derive good estimates, and when these estimates fail to be sharp., Comment: Expository article. 18 pages, 6 figures

There is a beautiful and well-studied relationship between the Poincare exponent and the fractal dimensions of the limit set of a Kleinian group. Motivated by this, given an arbitrary discrete subset of the unit ball we define a critical exponent and investigate how it relates to the fractal dimensions of the associated generalised limit set., Comment: 16 pages

Can one characterise the Fourier decay of a product measure in terms of the Fourier decay of its marginals? We make inroads on this question by describing the Fourier spectrum of a product measure in terms of the Fourier spectrum of its marginals. The Fourier spectrum is a continuously parametrised family of dimensions living between the Fourier and Hausdorff dimensions and captures more Fourier analytic information than either dimension considered in isolation. We provide several examples and applications, including to Kakeya and Furstenberg sets. In the process we derive novel Fourier analytic characterisations of the upper and lower box dimensions., Comment: 17 pages, 1 figure. Error corrected, more details added, other small changes

Marstrand's celebrated projection theorem gives the Hausdorff dimension of the orthogonal projection of a Borel set in Euclidean space for almost all orthogonal projections. It is straightforward to see that sets for which the Fourier and Hausdorff dimension coincide have no exceptional projections, that is, \emph{all} orthogonal projections satisfy the conclusion of Marstrand's theorem. With this in mind, one might believe that the Fourier dimension (or at least, Fourier decay) could be used to give better estimates for the Hausdorff dimension of the exceptional set in general. We obtain projection theorems and exceptional set estimates based on the Fourier spectrum; a family of dimensions that interpolates between the Fourier and Hausdorff dimensions. We apply these results to show that the Fourier spectrum can be used to improve several results for the Hausdorff dimension in certain cases, such as Ren--Wang's sharp bound for the exceptional set in the plane, Peres--Schlag's exceptional set bound and Bourgain--Oberlin's sharp $0$-dimensional exceptional set estimate., Comment: 23 pages, 3 figures. Some improvements

The Fourier spectrum is a family of dimensions that interpolates between the Fourier and Hausdorff dimensions and are defined in terms of certain energies which capture Fourier decay. In this paper we obtain a convenient discrete representation of those energies using the Fourier coefficients. As an example application, we use this representation to establish sharp bounds for the Fourier spectrum of a general measure with bounded support, improving previous estimates of the second-named author, Comment: 13 pages

We study the fine local scaling properties of a class of self-affine fractal sets called Gatzouras-Lalley carpets. More precisely, we establish a formula for the Assouad spectrum of all Gatzouras-Lalley carpets as the concave conjugate of an explicit piecewise-analytic function combined with a simple parameter change. Our formula implies a number of novel properties for the Assouad spectrum not previously observed for dynamically invariant sets; in particular, the Assouad spectrum can be a non-trivial differentiable function on the entire domain $(0,1)$ and can be strictly concave on open intervals. Our proof introduces a general framework for covering arguments using techniques developed in the context of multifractal analysis, including the method of types from large deviations theory and Lagrange duality from optimisation theory., Comment: 43 pages, 6 figures; v2: A minor auxiliary lemma (Lemma 4.7) in v1 was incorrect as stated and it has been removed; all other results unchanged. Numbering is different from v1

We introduce and study the \emph{Fourier spectrum} which is a continuously parametrised family of dimensions living between the Fourier dimension and the Hausdorff dimension for both sets and measures. We establish some fundamental theory and motivate the concept via several applications, especially to sumset type problems. For example, we study dimensions of convolutions and sumsets, and solve the distance set problem for sets satisfying certain Fourier analytic conditions., Comment: 32 pages, 1 figure, to appear in Math. Annalen

We study the Assouad and quasi-Assoaud dimensions of dominated rectangular self-affine sets in the plane. In contrast to previous work on the dimension theory of self-affine sets, we assume that the sets satisfy certain separation conditions on the projection to the principal axis, but otherwise have arbitrary overlaps in the plane. We introduce and study regularity properties of a certain symbolic non-autonomous iterated function system corresponding to "symbolic slices" of the self-affine set. We then establish dimensional formulas for the self-affine sets in terms of the dimension of the projection along with the maximal dimension of slices orthogonal to the projection. Our results are new even in the case when the self-affine set satisfies the strong separation condition: in fact, as an application, we show that self-affine sets satisfying the strong separation condition can have distinct Assouad and quasi-Assouad dimensions, answering a question of the first named author., Comment: 22 pages; v3: small fixes and other minor changes incorporating referee comments. To appear in Ann. Fenn. Math

We study the dimension theory of limit sets of iterated function systems consisting of a countably infinite number of conformal contractions. Our focus is on the Assouad type dimensions, which give information about the local structure of sets. Under natural separation conditions, we prove a formula for the Assouad dimension and prove sharp bounds for the Assouad spectrum in terms of the Hausdorff dimension of the limit set and dimensions of the set of fixed points of the contractions. The Assouad spectra of the family of examples which we use to show that the bounds are sharp display interesting behaviour, such as having two phase transitions. Our results apply in particular to sets of real or complex numbers which have continued fraction expansions with restricted entries, and to certain parabolic attractors., Comment: 32 pages, 1 figure. Added Lemma 5.3, Proposition 5.4, and Section 7

We derive upper and lower bounds for the Assouad and lower dimensions of self-affine measures in $\mathbb{R}^d$ generated by diagonal matrices and satisfying suitable separation conditions. The upper and lower bounds always coincide for $d=2,3$ yielding precise explicit formulae for the dimensions. Moreover, there are easy to check conditions guaranteeing that the bounds coincide for $d \geq 4$. An interesting consequence of our results is that there can be a `dimension gap' for such self-affine constructions, even in the plane. That is, we show that for some self-affine carpets of `Bara\'nski type' the Assouad dimension of all associated self-affine measures strictly exceeds the Assouad dimension of the carpet by some fixed $\delta>0$ depending only on the carpet. We also provide examples of self-affine carpets of `Bara\'nski type' where there is no dimension gap and in fact the Assouad dimension of the carpet is equal to the Assouad dimension of a carefully chosen self-affine measure., Comment: v2: accepted version, to appear in ETDS, small changes to presentation, 22 pages, 1 figure

We prove that the Assouad dimension of a parabolic Julia set is $\max\{1,h\}$ where $h$ is the Hausdorff dimension of the Julia set. Since $h$ may be strictly less than 1, this provides examples where the Assouad and Hausdorff dimension are distinct. The box and packing dimensions of the Julia set are known to coincide with $h$ and, moreover, $h$ can be characterised by a topological pressure function. This distinctive behaviour of the Assouad dimension invites further analysis of the Assouad type dimensions, including the Assouad and lower spectra. We compute all of the Assouad type dimensions for parabolic Julia sets and the associated $h$-conformal measure. Further, we show that if a Julia set has a Cremer point, then the Assouad dimension is 2., Comment: 26 pages, 1 figure. This paper used to form part of arXiv:2007.15493 which has subsequently been cut into three pieces. This version contains a new result on Julia sets with Cremer points

The Assouad dimension of the limit set of a geometrically finite Kleinian group with parabolics may exceed the Hausdorff and box dimensions. The Assouad \emph{spectrum} is a continuously parametrised family of dimensions which `interpolates' between the box and Assouad dimensions of a fractal set. It is designed to reveal more subtle geometric information than the box and Assouad dimensions considered in isolation. We conduct a detailed analysis of the Assouad spectrum of limit sets of geometrically finite Kleinian groups and the associated Patterson-Sullivan measure. Our analysis reveals several novel features, such as interplay between horoballs of different rank not seen by the box or Assouad dimensions., Comment: 31 pages, 11 figures. This paper used to form part of arXiv:2007.15493 which has subsequently been cut into three pieces

Parabolic fixed points form a countable dense subset of the limit set of a non-elementary geometrically finite Kleinian group with at least one parabolic element. Given such a group, one may associate a standard set of pairwise disjoint horoballs, each tangent to the boundary at a parabolic fixed point. The diameter of such a horoball can be thought of as the `inverse cost' of approximating an arbitrary point in the limit set by the associated parabolic point. A result of Stratmann and Velani allows one to count horoballs of a given size and, roughly speaking, for small $r>0$ there are $r^{-\delta}$ many horoballs of size approximately $r$, where $\delta$ is the Poincar\'e exponent of the group. We investigate localisations of this result, where we seek to count horoballs of size approximately $r$ inside a given ball $B(z,R)$. Roughly speaking, if $r \lesssim R^2$, then we obtain an analogue of the Stratmann-Velani result (normalised by the Patterson-Sullivan measure of $B(z,R)$). However, for larger values of $r$, the count depends in a subtle way on $z$. Our counting results have several applications, especially to the geometry of conformal measures supported on the limit set. For example, we compute or estimate several `fractal dimensions' of certain $s$-conformal measures for $s>\delta$ and use this to examine continuity properties of $s$-conformal measures at $s=\delta$., Comment: 21 pages, 4 figures

We introduce and study a family of non-conformal and non-uniformly contracting iterated function systems. We refer to the attractors of such systems as parabolic carpets. Roughly speaking they may be thought of as nonlinear analogues of self-affine carpets which are allowed to have parabolic fixed points. We compute the $L^q$-spectrum of a class of weak Gibbs measures supported on parabolic carpets as well as the box dimensions of the carpet itself., Comment: 30 pages, 1 figure

We provide a proof of the (well-known) result that the Poincar\'e exponent of a non-elementary Kleinian group is a lower bound for the upper box dimension of the limit set. Our proof only uses elementary hyperbolic and fractal geometry., Comment: Expository, 6 pages. This article has been accepted for publication in The American Mathematical Monthly, published by Taylor & Francis

A $(d,k)$-set is a subset of $\mathbb{R}^d$ containing a $k$-dimensional unit ball of all possible orientations. Using an approach of D.~Oberlin we prove various Fourier dimension estimates for compact $(d,k)$-sets. Our main interest is in restricted $(d,k)$-sets, where the set only contains unit balls with a restricted set of possible orientations $\Gamma$. In this setting our estimates depend on the Hausdorff dimension of $\Gamma$ and can sometimes be improved if additional geometric properties of $\Gamma$ are assumed. We are led to consider cones and prove that the cone in $\mathbb{R}^{d+1}$ has Fourier dimension $d-1$, which may be of interest in its own right., Comment: 13 pages. This revised version subsumes arXiv:2108.05771, contains a new result about the Fourier dimension of cones and includes a new co-author

Given a non-empty bounded subset of hyperbolic space and a Kleinian group acting on that space, the orbital set is the orbit of the given set under the action of the group. We may view orbital sets as bounded (often fractal) subsets of Euclidean space. We prove that the upper box dimension of an orbital set is given by the maximum of three quantities: the upper box dimension of the given set; the Poincar\'e exponent of the Kleinian group; and the upper box dimension of the limit set of the Kleinian group. Since we do not make any assumptions about the Kleinian group, none of the terms in the maximum can be removed in general. We show by constructing an explicit example that the (hyperbolic) boundedness assumption on $C$ cannot be removed in general., Comment: 11 pages

Diophantine approximation is traditionally the study of how well real numbers are approximated by rationals. We propose a model for studying Diophantine approximation in an arbitrary totally bounded metric space where the rationals are replaced with a countable hierarchy of `well-spread' points, which we refer to as abstract rationals. We prove various Jarnik-Besicovitch type dimension bounds and investigate their sharpness., Comment: 17 pages

We study the dimension theory of limit sets of iterated function systems consisting of a countably infinite number of contractions. Our primary focus is on the intermediate dimensions: a family of dimensions depending on a parameter $\theta \in [0,1]$ which interpolate between the Hausdorff and box dimensions. Our main results are in the case when all the contractions are conformal. Under a natural separation condition we prove that the intermediate dimensions of the limit set are the maximum of the Hausdorff dimension of the limit set and the intermediate dimensions of the set of fixed points of the contractions. This builds on work of Mauldin and Urba\'nski concerning the Hausdorff and upper box dimension. We give several (often counter-intuitive) applications of our work to dimensions of projections, fractional Brownian images, and general H\"older images. These applications apply to well-studied examples such as sets of numbers which have real or complex continued fraction expansions with restricted entries. We also obtain several results without assuming conformality or any separation conditions. We prove general upper bounds for the Hausdorff, box and intermediate dimensions of infinitely generated attractors in terms of a topological pressure function. We also show that the limit set of a 'generic' infinite iterated function system has box and intermediate dimensions equal to the ambient spatial dimension, where 'generic' can mean either 'full measure' or 'comeagre.', Comment: 31 pages, 1 figure. Versions 3 and 4 include minor post-publication corrections, in particular a slight change to property (4) in Definition 2.3, and to the conditions on the set P

We study the box dimensions of sets invariant under the toral endomorphism $(x, y) \mapsto (m x \text{ mod } 1, \, n y \text{ mod } 1)$ for integers $n>m \geq 2$. The basic examples of such sets are Bedford-McMullen carpets and, more generally, invariant sets are modelled by subshifts on the associated symbolic space. When this subshift is topologically mixing and sofic the situation is well-understood by results of Kenyon and Peres. Moreover, other work of Kenyon and Peres shows that the Hausdorff dimension is generally given by a variational principle. Therefore, our work is focused on the box dimensions in the case where the underlying shift is not topologically mixing and sofic. We establish straightforward upper and lower bounds for the box dimensions in terms of entropy which hold for all subshifts and show that the upper bound is the correct value for coded subshifts whose entropy can be realised by words which can be freely concatenated, which includes many well-known families such as $\beta$-shifts, (generalised) $S$-gap shifts, and transitive sofic shifts. We also provide examples of transitive coded subshifts where the general upper bound fails and the box dimension is actually given by the general lower bound. In the non-transitive sofic setting, we provide a formula for the box dimensions which is often intermediate between the general lower and upper bounds., Comment: 20 pages, 2 figures

In 1984 Bedford and McMullen independently introduced a family of self-affine sets now known as \emph{Bedford-McMullen carpets}. Their work stimulated a lot of research in the areas of fractal geometry and non-conformal dynamics. In this survey article we discuss some aspects of Bedford-McMullen carpets, focusing mostly on dimension theory., Comment: 21 pages, 3 figures. Survey article written for the Proceedings of the Fall 2019 Jean-Morlet Chair programme, Springer Lecture Notes Series

We investigate fractal aspects of elliptical polynomial spirals; that is, planar spirals with differing polynomial rates of decay in the two axis directions. We give a full dimensional analysis of these spirals, computing explicitly their intermediate, box-counting and Assouad-type dimensions. An exciting feature is that these spirals exhibit two phase transitions within the Assouad spectrum, the first natural class of fractals known to have this property. We go on to use this dimensional information to obtain bounds for the H\"older regularity of maps that can deform one spiral into another, generalising the 'winding problem' of when spirals are bi-Lipschitz equivalent to a line segment. A novel feature is the use of fractional Brownian motion and dimension profiles to bound the H\"older exponents., Comment: 20 pages, 7 figures

The Sullivan dictionary provides a beautiful correspondence between Kleinian groups acting on hyperbolic space and rational maps of the extended complex plane. An especially direct correspondence exists concerning the dimension theory of the associated limit sets and Julia sets. In recent work we established formulae for the Assouad type dimensions and spectra for these fractal sets and certain conformal measures they support. This allows a rather more nuanced comparison of the two families in the context of dimension. In this expository article we discuss how these results provide new entries in the Sullivan dictionary, as well as revealing striking differences between the two settings., Comment: 14 pages. 4 figures. The first version of this paper has now been cut into three pieces. The results on Kleinian groups now appear as arXiv:2203.04931 and the results on Julia sets now appear as arXiv:2203.04943. What remains here is an expository article

The 'popcorn function' isThe `popcorn function' is a well-known and important example in real analysis with many interesting features. We prove that the box dimension of the graph of the popcorn function is 4/3, as well as computing the Assouad dimension and Assouad spectrum. The main ingredients include Duffin-Schaeffer type estimates from Diophantine approximation and the Chung-Erd\H{o}s inequality from probability theory., Comment: 13 pages, 2 figures

Let $p_n$ denote the $n$th prime, and consider the function $1/n \mapsto 1/p_n$ which maps the reciprocals of the positive integers bijectively to the reciprocals of the primes. We show that H\"older continuity of this function is equivalent to a parameterised family of Cram\'er type estimates on the gaps between successive primes. Here the parameterisation comes from the H\"older exponent. In particular, we show that Cram\'er's conjecture is equivalent to the map $1/n \mapsto 1/p_n$ being Lipschitz. On the other hand, we show that the inverse map $1/p_n \mapsto 1/n$ is H\"older of all orders but not Lipshitz and this is independent of Cram\'er's conjecture., Comment: 7 pages, 0 figures

We study the $L^q$-spectrum of measures in the plane generated by certain nonlinear maps. In particular we consider attractors of iterated function systems consisting of maps whose components are $C^{1+\alpha}$ and for which the Jacobian is a lower triangular matrix at every point subject to a natural domination condition on the entries. We calculate the $L^q$-spectrum of Bernoulli measures supported on such sets by using an appropriately defined analogue of the singular value function and an appropriate pressure function., Comment: 19 Pages, 3 figures

This is a book to be published in 2020 by Cambridge University Press (Tracts in Mathematics Series). It focuses on the Assouad dimension of sets and measures in Euclidean space, as well as many variants on the Assouad dimension, including the lower dimension and Assouad spectrum. It considers these notions in the setting of fractal geometry and topics covered include: weak tangents, self-similar sets, self-affine sets, Mandelbrot percolation, limit sets of Kleinian groups, orthogonal projections, distance sets, and Kakeya sets. It also considers applications of these ideas to other areas, including: embedding theory, number theory, probability theory and functional analysis. It ends with a list of open problems., Comment: Comments welcome. 292 pages, many figures. This material will be published by Cambridge University Press as Assouad Dimension and Fractal Geometry by Jonathan Fraser. This pre-publication version is free to view and download for personal use only. Not for re-distribution, re-sale or use in derivative works. Copyright Jonathan Fraser 2020

We prove a general nonlinear projection theorem for Assouad dimension. This theorem has several applications including to distance sets, radial projections, and sum-product phenomena. In the setting of distance sets we are able to completely resolve the planar distance set problem for Assouad dimension, both dealing with the awkward `critical case' and providing sharp estimates for sets with Assouad dimension less than 1. In the higher dimensional setting we connect the problem to the dimension of the set of exceptions in a related (orthogonal) projection theorem. We also obtain results on pinned distance sets and our results still hold when the distances are taken with respect to a sufficiently curved norm. As another application we prove a radial projection theorem for Assouad dimension with sharp estimates on the Hausdorff dimension of the exceptional set., Comment: 21 pages

The purpose of this article is to introduce and motivate the notion of Minkowski (or box) dimension for measures. The definition is simple and fills a gap in the existing literature on the dimension theory of measures. As the terminology suggests, we show that it can be used to characterise the Minkowski dimension of a compact metric space. We also study its relationship with other concepts in dimension theory., Comment: 16 pages, 1 figure

The Assouad and lower dimensions and dimension spectra quantify the regularity of a measure by considering the relative measure of concentric balls. On the other hand, one can quantify the smoothness of an absolutely continuous measure by considering the $L^p$ norms of its density. We establish sharp relationships between these two notions. Roughly speaking, we show that smooth measures must be regular, but that regular measures need not be smooth., Comment: 17 pages, 4 figures

We present several applications of the Assouad dimension, and the related quasi-Assouad dimension and Assouad spectrum, to the box and packing dimensions of orthogonal projections of sets. For example, we show that if the (quasi-)Assouad dimension of $F \subseteq \rn$ is no greater than $m$, then the box and packing dimensions of $F$ are preserved under orthogonal projections onto almost all $m$-dimensional subspaces. We also show that the threshold $m$ for the (quasi-)Assouad dimension is sharp, and bound the dimension of the exceptional set of projections strictly away from the dimension of the Grassmannian., Comment: 10 pages, 1 figure. To appear in Journal of Fractal Geometry

We provide quantitative estimates for the supremum of the Hausdorff dimension of sets in the real line which avoid $\varepsilon$-approximations of arithmetic progressions. Some of these estimates are in terms of Szemer\'{e}di bounds. In particular, we answer a question of Fraser, Saito and Yu (IMRN, 2019) and considerably improve their bounds. We also show that Hausdorff dimension is equivalent to box or Assouad dimension for this problem, and obtain a lower bound for Fourier dimension., Comment: 14 pages. v3: minor corrections and clarifications

We study the box dimensions of self-affine sets in $\mathbb{R}^3$ which are generated by a finite collection of generalised permutation matrices. We obtain bounds for the dimensions which hold with very minimal assumptions and give rise to sharp results in many cases. There are many issues in extending the well-established planar theory to $\mathbb{R}^3$ including that the principal planar projections are (affine distortions of) self-affine sets with overlaps (rather than self-similar sets) and that the natural modified singular value function fails to be sub-multiplicative in general. We introduce several new techniques to deal with these issues and hopefully provide some insight into the challenges in extending the theory further., Comment: 29 pages, 1 figure

We consider Schmidt's game on the space of compact subsets of a given metric space equipped with the Hausdorff metric, and the space of continuous functions equipped with the supremum norm. We are interested in determining the generic behaviour of objects in a metric space, mostly in the context of fractal dimensions, and the notion of `generic' we adopt is that of being winning for Schmidt's game. We find properties whose corresponding sets are winning for Schmidt's game that are starkly different from previously established, and well-known, properties which are generic in other contexts, such as being residual or of full measure., Comment: 21 pages

Intermediate dimensions were recently introduced to interpolate between the Hausdorff and box-counting dimensions of fractals. Firstly, we show that these intermediate dimensions may be defined in terms of capacities with respect to certain kernels. Then, relying on this, we show that the intermediate dimensions of the projection of a set $E \subset \mathbb{R}^n$ onto almost all $m$-dimensional subspaces depend only on $m$ and $E$, that is, they are almost surely independent of the choice of subspace. Our approach is based on `intermediate dimension profiles' that are expressed in terms of capacities. We discuss several applications at the end of the paper, including a surprising result that relates the box dimensions of the projections of a set to the Hausdorff dimension of the set., Comment: 17 pages, 0 figures

Dimension theory lies at the heart of fractal geometry and concerns the rigorous quantification of how large a subset of a metric space is. There are many notions of dimension to consider, and part of the richness of the subject is in understanding how these different notions fit together, as well as how their subtle differences give rise to different behaviour. Here we survey a new approach in dimension theory, which seeks to unify the study of individual dimensions by viewing them as different facets of the same object. For example, given two notions of dimension, one may be able to define a continuously parameterised family of dimensions which interpolates between them. An understanding of this `interpolation function' therefore contains more information about a given object than the two dimensions considered in isolation. We pay particular attention to two concrete examples of this, namely the \emph{Assouad spectrum}, which interpolates between the box and (quasi-)Assouad dimension, and the \emph{intermediate dimensions}, which interpolate between the Hausdorff and box dimensions., Comment: to appear in Proceedings of Fractal Geometry and Stochastics VI - 18 pages, 6 figures

The winding problem concerns understanding the regularity of functions which map a line segment onto a spiral. This problem has relevance in fluid dynamics and conformal welding theory, where spirals arise naturally. Here we interpret `regularity' in terms of H\"{o}lder exponents and establish sharp results for spirals with polynomial winding rates, observing that the sharp H\"{o}lder exponent of the forward map and its inverse satisfy a formula reminiscent of Sobolev conjugates. We also investigate the dimension theory of these spirals, in particular, the Assouad dimension, Assouad spectrum and box dimensions. The aim here is to compare the bounds on the H\"{o}lder exponents in the winding problem coming directly from knowledge of dimension (and how dimension distorts under H\"{o}lder image) with the sharp results. We find that the Assouad spectrum provides the best information, but that even this is not sharp. We also find that the Assouad spectrum is the only `dimension' which distinguishes between spirals with different polynomial winding rates in the superlinear regime., Comment: 21 pages, 4 figures

We prove that if a set is `large' in the sense of Erd\H{o}s, then it approximates arbitrarily long arithmetic progressions in a strong quantitative sense. More specifically, expressing the error in the approximation in terms of the gap length $\Delta$ of the progression, we improve a previous result of $o(\Delta)$ to $O(\Delta^\alpha)$ for any $\alpha \in (0,1)$., Comment: 1 figure

We introduce a continuum of dimensions which are `intermediate' between the familiar Hausdorff and box dimensions. This is done by restricting the families of allowable covers in the definition of Hausdorff dimension by insisting that $|U| \leq |V|^\theta$ for all sets $U, V$ used in a particular cover, where $\theta \in [0,1]$ is a parameter. Thus, when $\theta=1$ only covers using sets of the same size are allowable, and we recover the box dimensions, and when $\theta=0$ there are no restrictions, and we recover Hausdorff dimension. We investigate many properties of the intermediate dimension (as a function of $\theta$), including proving that it is continuous on $(0,1]$ but not necessarily continuous at $0$, as well as establishing appropriate analogues of the mass distribution principle, Frostman's lemma, and the dimension formulae for products. We also compute, or estimate, the intermediate dimensions of some familiar sets, including sequences formed by negative powers of integers, and Bedford-McMullen carpets., Comment: 19 pages, 1 figure. To appear in Mathematische Zeitschrift

We study $L^q$-spectra of planar self-affine measures generated by diagonal systems with an emphasis on providing closed form expressions. We answer a question posed by Fraser in 2016 in the negative by proving that a certain natural closed form expression does not generally give the $L^q$-spectrum and, using a similar approach, find counterexamples to a statement of Falconer-Miao from 2007 and a conjecture of Miao from 2008 concerning a closed form expression for the generalised dimensions of generic self-affine measures. In the positive direction we provide new non-trivial closed form bounds in both of the above settings, which in certain cases yield sharp results. We also provide examples of self-affine measures whose $L^q$-spectra exhibit new types of phase transitions. Our examples depend on a combinatorial estimate for the exponential growth of certain split binomial sums., Comment: 27 Pages, 4 Figures

We prove that for an arbitrary upper semi-continuous function $\phi\colon G(1,2) \to [0,1]$ there exists a compact set $F$ in the plane such that $\dim_{\textrm{A}} \pi F = \phi(\pi)$ for all $\pi \in G(1,2)$, where $\pi F$ is the orthogonal projection of $F$ onto the line $\pi$. In particular, this shows that the Assouad dimension of orthogonal projections can take on any finite or countable number of distinct values on a set of projections with positive measure. It was previously known that two distinct values could be achieved with positive measure. Recall that for other standard notions of dimension, such as the Hausdorff, packing, upper or lower box dimension, a single value occurs almost surely., Comment: 14 pages, to appear in Proc. AMS

A celebrated and deep result of Green and Tao states that the primes contain arbitrarily long arithmetic progressions. In this note I provide a straightforward argument demonstrating that the primes get arbitrarily close to arbitrarily long arithmetic progressions. The argument also applies to `large sets' in the sense of Erd\H{o}s-Tur\'an. The proof is short, completely self-contained, and aims to give a heuristic explanation of why the primes, and other large sets, possess arithmetic structure., Comment: Expository article, 6 pages, 1 figure. To appear in The American Mathematical Monthly

We investigate how the Hausdorff dimensions of microsets are related to the dimensions of the original set. It is known that the maximal dimension of a microset is the Assouad dimension of the set. We prove that the lower dimension can analogously be obtained as the minimal dimension of a microset. In particular, the maximum and minimum exist. We also show that for an arbitrary $\mathcal{F}_\sigma$ set $\Delta \subseteq [0,d]$ containing its infimum and supremum there is a compact set in $[0,1]^d$ for which the set of Hausdorff dimensions attained by its microsets is exactly equal to the set $\Delta$. Our work is motivated by the general programme of determining what geometric information about a set can be determined at the level of tangents., Comment: 15 pages, 1 figure. small fixes

We prove that the upper box dimension of an inhomogeneous self-affine set is bounded above by the maximum of the affinity dimension and the dimension of the condensation set. In addition, we determine sufficient conditions for this upper bound to be attained, which, in part, constitutes an exploration of the capacity for the condensation set to mitigate dimension drop between the affinity dimension and the corresponding homogeneous attractor. Our work improves and unifies previous results on general inhomogeneous attractors, low-dimensional affine systems, and inhomogeneous self-affine carpets, while providing inhomogeneous analogues of Falconer's seminal results on homogeneous self-affine sets., Comment: 12 pages, 2 figures

We derive the almost sure Assouad spectrum and quasi-Assouad dimension of random self-affine Bedford-McMullen carpets. Previous work has revealed that the (related) Assouad dimension is not sufficiently sensitive to distinguish between subtle changes in the random model, since it tends to be almost surely `as large as possible' (a deterministic quantity). This has been verified in conformal and non-conformal settings. In the conformal setting, the Assouad spectrum and quasi-Assouad dimension behave rather differently, tending to almost surely coincide with the upper box dimension. Here we investigate the non-conformal setting and find that the Assouad spectrum and quasi-Assouad dimension generally do not coincide with the box dimension or Assouad dimension. We provide examples highlighting the subtle differences between these notions. Our proofs combine deterministic covering techniques with suitably adapted Chernoff estimates and Borel-Cantelli type arguments., Comment: 15 pages, 2 figures

We consider the Assouad spectrum, introduced by Fraser and Yu, along with a natural variant that we call the `upper Assouad spectrum'. These spectra are designed to interpolate between the upper box-counting and Assouad dimensions. It is known that the Assouad spectrum approaches the upper box-counting dimension at the left hand side of its domain, but does not necessarily approach the Assouad dimension on the right. Here we show that it necessarily approaches the \emph{quasi-Assouad dimension} at the right hand side of its domain. We further show that the upper Assouad spectrum can be expressed in terms of the Assouad spectrum, thus motivating the definition used by Fraser-Yu. We also provide a large family of examples demonstrating new phenomena relating to the form of the Assouad spectrum. For example, we prove that it can be strictly concave, exhibit phase transitions of any order, and need not be piecewise differentiable., Comment: 8 pages