Qusisymmetric dimension distortion of Ahlfors regular subsets of a metric space

Abstract

We show that if $f:X\to Y$ is a quasisymmetric mapping between Ahlfors regular spaces, then $\dim_H f(E)\leq\dim_H E$ for "almost every" bounded Ahlfors regular set $E\subseteq X$. If additionally, $X$ and $Y$ are Loewner spaces then $\dim_H f(E)=\dim_H E$ for "almost every" Ahlfors regular set $E\subset X$. The precise statements of these results are given in terms of Fuglede's modulus of measures. As a corollary of these general theorems we show that if $f$ is a quasiconformal map of $\mathbb{R}^N$, $N\geq 2$, then for Lebesgue a.e. $y\in\mathbb{R}^N$ we have $\dim_H f(y+E) = \dim_H E$. A similar result holds for Carnot groups as well. For planar quasiconformal maps, our general estimates imply that if $E \subset \mathbb{R}$ is Ahlfors $d$-regular, $d<1$, then some component of $f(E \times \mathbb{R})$ has dimension at most $2/(d+1)$, and we construct examples to show this bound is sharp. In addition, we show there is a $1$-dimensional set $S\subseteq \mathbb R$ and planar quasiconformal map $f$ such that $f(\mathbb{R} \times S)$ contains no rectifiable sub-arcs. These results generalize work of Balogh, Monti and Tyson \cite{Tyson:frequency} and answer questions posed in \cite{Tyson:frequency} and \cite{AimPL}.