Project description
The geometry of chance
Fractals are intricate patterns seen in coastlines, clouds, and even financial markets. They have a form of dimension that does not fit neatly into whole numbers. For decades, mathematicians have predicted how dense these shapes should be, based on their underlying randomness. Proving this so-called ‘expected dimension’, however, is challenging because fractals overlap or exist in high-dimensional spaces. The ERC-funded DIM-FRACTAL project aims to address this by combining tools from additive combinatorics and random matrix theory. Researchers are building a unified approach to cases where standard techniques break down. They will show that fractals do reach their full geometric complexity. Solving this problem would offer new ways of understanding the non-linear and chaotic systems that shape the physical world.
Objective
We consider the dimension of stationary fractal measures. Our examples include self-affine, self-similar, and Furstenberg measures, which are among the most fundamental and studied fractal objects. The dimension of such a measure has a natural upper bound defined in terms of entropy, Lyapunov exponents, and the dimension of the ambient space. Equality to the upper bound is expected in the absence of obvious algebraic obstructions. In very simple situations, this equality is easy to demonstrate and was known to hold long ago. In more complicated cases, it has been shown to hold almost surely under a natural randomization of the parameters.
On the other hand, proving the expected equality under the minimal conjectured assumptions, or even under some mild algebraic conditions, is an extremely challenging problem. In recent years, there has been considerable progress in this direction. However, due to major obstacles in current methods, a satisfactory solution is still a long way off. These obstacles mainly stem from high dimensionality of the ambient space, and from lack of separation in the associated semigroup.
The primary goal of the proposed research is to make substantial progress in verifying the equality by addressing the aforementioned obstacles through the use of new techniques and ideas. Our suggested arguments include methods from additive combinatorics, ergodic theory, and the theory of random products of matrices.
To address difficulties caused by lack of separation, we suggest extending the theory developed for Bernoulli convolutions, and its partial generalization to the setup of three maps, to systems consisting of more maps. To tackle high dimensionality difficulties, we propose an approach requiring the factorization of the Furstenberg boundary maps. By implementing these strategies, we expect our research to play a crucial role in forming a more unified and complete dimension theory of stationary fractal measures.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
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CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
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Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
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Call for proposal
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(opens in new window) ERC-2025-STG
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32000 Haifa
Israel
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