Hausdorff dimension of restricted Kakeya sets

Abstract

A Kakeya set in $\mathbb{R}^n$ is a compact set that contains a unit line segment $I_e$ in each direction $e \in S^{n-1}$. The Kakeya conjecture states that any Kakeya set in $\mathbb{R}^n$ has Hausdorff dimension $n$. We consider a restricted case where the midpoint of each line segment $I_e$ must belong to a fixed set $A$ with packing dimension at most $s \in [0, n]$. In this case, we show that the Hausdorff dimension of the Kakeya set is at least $n - s$. Furthermore, using the "bush argument", we improve the lower bound to $\max \{ n - s, n - g_n(s)\}$, where $g_n(s)$ is defined inductively. For example, when $n = 4$, we prove that the Hausdorff dimension is at least $\max\{\frac{19}{5} - \frac{3}{5}s,4-s\}$. We also establish Kakeya maximal function analogues of these results.