Fractal Sumset Properties

Abstract

In this paper we introduce two notions of fractal sumset properties. A compact set $K\subset\mathbb{R}^d$ is said to have the Hausdorff sumset property (HSP) if for any $\ell\in\mathbb{N}_{\ge 2}$ there exist compact sets $K_1, K_2,\ldots, K_\ell$ such that $K_1+K_2+\cdots+K_\ell\subset K$ and $\dim_H K_i=\dim_H K$ for all $1\le i\le \ell$. Analogously, if we replace the Hausdorff dimension by the packing dimension in the definition of HSP, then the compact set $K\subset\mathbb{R}^d$ is said to have the packing sumset property (PSP). We show that the HSP fails for certain homogeneous self-similar sets satisfying the strong separation condition, while the PSP holds for all homogeneous self-similar sets in $\mathbb{R}^d$.