O conceito de reflexão em topologia expressa o fato de que um espaço satisfaz uma dada propriedade sempre que esta é satisfeita por seus subespaços \"menores\". Neste trabalho, estuda-se a reflexão de propriedades envolvendo a maioria das principais funções cardinais e metrizabilidade, bem como outras propriedades relacionadas. São discutidos problemas em aberto -- como o problema de Hamburger --, incluindo respostas parciais e exemplos de consistência. Várias dentre as demonstrações apresentadas utilizam técnicas de submodelos elementares, que constituem hoje uma importante ferramenta no estudo de topologia geral. / The concept of reflection in topology expresses the fact that a space satisfies a given property provided that its \"small\" subspaces do. This work presents a study on reflection of properties concerning most of the main cardinal functions and metrizability, as well as other related properties. Open problems --such as Hamburger\'s question-- are also discussed, including partial answers and consistent examples. Several of the proofs presented here make use of elementary submodels, nowadays an important tool in the study of general topology.

This thesis is broadly divided in two parts. In the first part we give a survey of various distances between metric spaces, namely the uniform distance, Lipschitz distance, Hausdor distance and the Gramoz Hausdor distance. Here we talk about only the most basic of their properties and give a few illustrative examples. As we wish to study collections of metric measure spaces, which are triples (X; d; m) consisting of a complete separable metric space (X; d) and a Boral probability measure m on X, there are discussions about some distances between them. Among the three that we discuss, the transportation and distortion distances were introduced by Sturm. The later, denoted by 2, on the space X2 of all metric measure spaces having finite L2-size is the focus of the second part of this thesis. The second part is an exposition based on the work done by Sturm. Here we prove a number of results on the analytic and geometric properties of (X2; 2). Beginning by noting that (X2; 2) is a non-complete space, we try to understand its completion. Towards this end, the notion of a gauged measure space is useful. These are triples (X; f; m) where X is a Polish space, m a Boral probability measure on X and f a function, also called a gauge, on X X that is symmetric and square integral with respect to the product measure m2. We show that, Theorem 1. The completion of (X2; 2) consists of all gauged measure spaces where the gauges satisfy triangle inequality almost everywhere. We denote the space of all gauged measure spaces by Y. The space X2 can be embedded in Y and the transportation distance 2 extends easily from X2 to Y. These two spaces turn out to have similar geometric properties. On both these spaces 2 is a strictly intrinsic metric; i.e. any two members in them can be joined by a shortest path. But more importantly, using a description of the geodesics in these spaces, the following result is proved. Theorem 2. Both (X2; 2) and (Y; 2) have non-negative curvature in the sense of Alexandrov.

For a dynamical system on a metric space a shrinking-target set consists of those points whose orbit hit a given ball of shrinking radius infinitely often. Historically such sets originate in Diophantine approximation, in which case they describe the set of well-approximable numbers. One aspect of such sets that is often studied is their Hausdorff dimension. We will show that an analogue of Bowen's dimension formula holds for such sets when they are generated by conformal non-autonomous iterated function systems satisfying some natural assumptions.

We introduce methods to cope with self-similar sets when we do not assume any separation condition. For a self-similar set K ⊆ ℝᵈ we establish a similarity dimension-like formula for Hausdorff dimension regardless of any separation condition. By the application of this result we deduce that the Hausdorff measure and Hausdorff content of K are equal, which implies that K is Ahlfors regular if and only if Hᵗ (K) > 0 where t = dim[sub]H K. We further show that if t = dim[sub]H K < 1 then Hᵗ (K) > 0 is also equivalent to the weak separation property. Regarding Hausdorff dimension, we give a dimension approximation method that provides a tool to generalise results on non-overlapping self-similar sets to overlapping self-similar sets. We investigate how the Hausdorff dimension and measure of a self-similar set K ⊆ ℝᵈ behave under linear mappings. This depends on the nature of the group T generated by the orthogonal parts of the defining maps of K. We show that if T is finite then every linear image of K is a graph directed attractor and there exists at least one projection of K such that the dimension drops under projection. In general, with no restrictions on T we establish that Hᵗ (L ∘ O(K)) = Hᵗ (L(K)) for every element O of the closure of T , where L is a linear map and t = dim[sub]H K. We also prove that for disjoint subsets A and B of K we have that Hᵗ (L(A) ∩ L(B)) = 0. Hochman and Shmerkin showed that if T is dense in SO(d; ℝ) and the strong separation condition is satisfied then dim[sub]H (g(K)) = min {dim[sub]H K; l} for every continuously differentiable map g of rank l. We deduce the same result without any separation condition and we generalize a result of Eroğlu by obtaining that Hᵗ (g(K)) = 0. We show that for the attractor (K1, … ,Kq) of a graph directed iterated function system, for each 1 ≤ j ≤ q and ε > 0 there exists a self-similar set K ⊆ Kj that satisfies the strong separation condition and dim[sub]H Kj - ε < dim[sub]H K. We show that we can further assume convenient conditions on the orthogonal parts and similarity ratios of the defining similarities of K. Using this property we obtain results on a range of topics including on dimensions of projections, intersections, distance sets and sums and products of sets. We study the situations where the Hausdorff measure and Hausdorff content of a set are equal in the critical dimension. Our main result here shows that this equality holds for any subset of a set corresponding to a nontrivial cylinder of an irreducible subshift of finite type, and thus also for any self-similar or graph directed self-similar set, regardless of separation conditions. The main tool in the proof is an exhaustion lemma for Hausdorff measure based on the Vitali's Covering Theorem. We also give several examples showing that one cannot hope for the equality to hold in general if one moves in a number of the natural directions away from `self-similar'. Finally we consider an analogous version of the problem for packing measure. In this case we need the strong separation condition and can only prove that the packing measure and δ-approximate packing pre-measure coincide for sufficiently small δ > 0.

This thesis presents the strong and weak forms of the Banach-Tarski paradox based on the Hausdorff paradox. It provides modernized proofs of the paradoxes and necessary properties of equidecomposable and paradoxical sets. The historical significance of the paradox for measure theory is covered, along with its incorrect attribution to Banach and Tarski. Finally, the necessity of the axiom of choice is discussed and contrasted with other axiomatic and topological assumptions that enable the paradoxes. / Den här uppsatsen presenterar den starka och svaga formen av Banach-Tarskis paradox baserade på Hausdorffs paradox. Den tillhandahåller moderniserade bevis av paradoxerna och nödvändiga egenskaper av likuppdelningsbara och paradoxala mängder. Den historiska betydelsen av paradoxen på måtteori tas upp samt dess felaktiga tillskrivning till Banach och Tarski. Till sist diskuteras behovet av urvalsaxiomet som ställs i kontrast mot andra axiomatiska och topologiska antaganden som möjliggör paradoxerna.

The aim of this thesis is to develop the dimension theory of self-affine carpets in several directions. Self-affine carpets are an important class of planar self-affine sets which have received a great deal of attention in the literature on fractal geometry over the last 30 years. These constructions are important for several reasons. In particular, they provide a bridge between the relatively well-understood world of self-similar sets and the far from understood world of general self-affine sets. These carpets are designed in such a way as to facilitate the computation of their dimensions, and they display many interesting and surprising features which the simpler self-similar constructions do not have. For example, they can have distinct Hausdorff and packing dimensions and the Hausdorff and packing measures are typically infinite in the critical dimensions. Furthermore, they often provide exceptions to the seminal result of Falconer from 1988 which gives the `generic' dimensions of self-affine sets in a natural setting. The work in this thesis will be based on five research papers I wrote during my time as a PhD student. The first contribution of this thesis will be to introduce a new class of self-affine carpets, which we call box-like self-affine sets, and compute their box and packing dimensions via a modified singular value function. This not only generalises current results on self-affine carpets, but also helps to reconcile the `exceptional constructions' with Falconer's singular value function approach in the generic case. This will appear in Chapter 2 and is based on a paper which appeared in 'Nonlinearity' in 2012. In Chapter 3 we continue studying the dimension theory of self-affine sets by computing the Assouad and lower dimensions of certain classes. The Assouad and lower dimensions have not received much attention in the literature on fractals to date and their importance has been more related to quasi-conformal maps and embeddability problems. This appears to be changing, however, and so our results constitute a timely and important contribution to a growing body of literature on the subject. The material in this Chapter will be based on a paper which has been accepted for publication in 'Transactions of the American Mathematical Society'. In Chapters 4-6 we move away from the classical setting of iterated function systems to consider two more exotic constructions, namely, inhomogeneous attractors and random 1-variable attractors, with the aim of developing the dimension theory of self-affine carpets in these directions. In order to put our work into context, in Chapter 4 we consider inhomogeneous self-similar sets and significantly generalise the results on box dimensions obtained by Olsen and Snigireva, answering several questions posed in the literature in the process. We then move to the self-affine setting and, in Chapter 5, investigate the dimensions of inhomogeneous self-affine carpets and prove that new phenomena can occur in this setting which do not occur in the setting of self-similar sets. The material in Chapter 4 will be based on a paper which appeared in 'Studia Mathematica' in 2012, and the material in Chapter 5 is based on a paper, which is in preparation. Finally, in Chapter 6 we consider random self-affine sets. The traditional approach to random iterated function systems is probabilistic, but here we allow the randomness in the construction to be provided by the topological structure of the sample space, employing ideas from Baire category. We are able to obtain very general results in this setting, relaxing the conditions on the maps from `affine' to `bi-Lipschitz'. In order to get precise results on the Hausdorff and packing measures of typical attractors, we need to specialise to the setting of random self-similar sets and we show again that several interesting and new phenomena can occur when we relax to the setting of random self-affine carpets. The material in this Chapter will be based on a paper which has been accepted for publication by 'Ergodic Theory and Dynamical Systems'.

This thesis concerns an active research area within fractal geometry. In the first part, in Chapters 2 and 3, for directed graph iterated function systems (IFSs) defined on ℝ, we prove that a class of 2-vertex directed graph IFSs have attractors that cannot be the attractors of standard (1-vertex directed graph) IFSs, with or without separation conditions. We also calculate their exact Hausdorff measure. Thus we are able to identify a new class of attractors for which the exact Hausdorff measure is known. We give a constructive algorithm for calculating the set of gap lengths of any attractor as a finite union of cosets of finitely generated semigroups of positive real numbers. The generators of these semigroups are contracting similarity ratios of simple cycles in the directed graph. The algorithm works for any IFS defined on ℝ with no limit on the number of vertices in the directed graph, provided a separation condition holds. The second part, in Chapter 4, applies to directed graph IFSs defined on ℝⁿ . We obtain an explicit calculable value for the power law behaviour as r → 0⁺ , of the qth packing moment of μ[subscript(u)], the self-similar measure at a vertex u, for the non-lattice case, with a corresponding limit for the lattice case. We do this (i) for any q ∈ ℝ if the strong separation condition holds, (ii) for q ≥ 0 if the weaker open set condition holds and a specified non-negative matrix associated with the system is irreducible. In the non-lattice case this enables the rate of convergence of the packing L[superscript(q)]-spectrum of μ[subscript(u)] to be determined. We also show, for (ii) but allowing q ∈ ℝ, that the upper multifractal q box-dimension with respect to μ[subscript(u)], of the set consisting of all the intersections of the components of F[subscript(u)], is strictly less than the multifractal q Hausdorff dimension with respect to μ[subscript(u)] of F[subscript(u)].

L'analyse multifractale est l'étude des propriétés locales des ensembles de mesures ou de fonctions. Son importance est apparue dans le cadre de la turbulence pleinement développée. Dans ce cadre, l'expérimentateur n'a pas accès à la vitesse en tout point d'un fluide mais il peut mesurer sa valeur en un point en fonction du temps. On ne mesure donc pas directement la fonction vitesse du fluide, mais sa trace. Cette thèse sera essentiellement consacrée à l'étude du comportement local de traces de fonctions d'espaces de Besov : nous déterminerons la dimension de Hausdorff des ensembles de points ayant un exposant de Hölder donné (spectre multifractal). Afin de caractériser facilement l'exposant de Hölder et l'appartenance à un espace de Besov, on utilisera la décomposition de fonctions sur les bases d'ondelettes.Nous n'obtiendrons pas la valeur du spectre de la trace de toute fonction d'un espace de Besov mais sa valeur pour un ensemble générique de fonctions. On fera alors appel à deux notions de généricité différentes : la prévalence et la généricité au sens de Baire. Ces notions ne coïncident pas toujours, mais, ici on obtiendra les mêmes résultats. Dans la dernière partie, afin de déterminer la forme que peut prend un spectre multifractal, on construira une fonction qui est son propre spectre / Multifractal analysis consists in the study of local properties of set of measures or functions. Its importance appeared in the frame of fully developed turbulence. In this area, physicists do not know the velocity of a fluid at all points but they can measure its value in one point in function of time. Hence, they do not measure the velocity function of the fluid but its trace.This thesis will be mainly dedicated to the study of local behavior of traces of Besov functions: we will determine the Hausdorff dimension of sets of points with a given Hölder exponent (the so-called multifractal spectrum). In order to easily characterize Hölder exponent and Besov spaces, we will use wavelet decomposition. We will not get the value of the multifractal spectrum of the trace of all functions of a Besov space, but its value for a generic set of functions. Then, we will use two notions of genericity : prevalence and Baire's genericity. Even if generic and prevalent properties can be different, here they will be the same.In the last part, in order to establish what a multifractal spectrum shape can be, we will construct a function which is its own spectrum

On étudie dans cette thèse la régularité des cônes et d'ensembles de dimension 3 dans l'espace Euclidien de dimension 4.Dans la première partie, on étudie d'abord la régularité Bi-Hölderienne des cônes minimaux de dimension 3 dans l'espace Euclidien de dimension 4. Ceci nous permet ensuite de montrer qu'il existe un difféomorphisme locale entre un cône minimal de dimension 3 dans l'espace Euclidien de dimension 4 et un cône minimal de dimension 3, de type P, Y ou T, loin d'origine. La méthode est la même que pour les ensembles minimaux de dimension 2. On construit des compétiteurs et on se ramène aux situations connues des ensembles minimaux de dimension 2 dans l'espace Euclidien de dimension 3.Dans la deuxième partie, on utilise le résultat de la première partie pour donner quelques résultats de régularité Bi-Hölderienne pour les ensembles minimaux de dimension 3 dans l'espace Euclidien de dimension 4. On s'intéresse aussi aux ensembles minimaux de Mumford-Shah et on obtient un résultat de l'existence d'un point de type T. / In this thesis we study the problems of regularity of three-dimensional minimal cones and sets in l'espace Euclidien de dimension 4In the first part we study the Hölder regularity for minimal cones of dimension 3 in l'espace Euclidien de dimension 4. Then we use this for showing that there exists a local diffeomorphic mapping between a minimal cone of dimension 3 and a minimal cone of dimension 3 of type P, Y or T, away from the origin. The techniques used here are the same as the ones for the regularity of two-dimensional minimal sets. We construct some competitors to reduce to the known situation of two-dimensional minimal sets in l'espace Euclidien de dimension 3.In the second part, we use the first part to give somme results of the Hölder regularity for three-dimensional minimal sets in l'espace Euclidien de dimension 4. We interested also in Mumford-Shah minimal sets and we get a result of the existence of a T-point.

Cette thèse s’intéresse principalement à l’existence et à la régularité desensembles minimaux. On commence par montrer, dans le chapitre 3, que le problème de Plateau étudié par Reifenberg admet au moins une solution. C’est-à-dire que, si l’onse donne un ensemble compact B⊂R^n et un sous-groupe L du groupe d’homologie de Čech H_(d-1) (B;G) de dimension (d-1) sur un groupe abelien G, on montre qu’il existe un ensemble compact E⊃B tel que L est contenu dans le noyau de l’homomorphisme H_(d-1) (B;G)→H_(d-1) (E;G) induit par l’application d’inclusion B→E, et pour lequel la mesure de Hausdorff H^d (E∖B) est minimale (sous ces contraintes). Ensuite, on montre au chapitre 4, que pour tout ensemble presque minimal glissant E de dimension 2, dans un domaine régulier Σ ressemblant localement à un demi espace, associé à la frontière glissante ∂Σ, et tel que E⊃∂Σ, il se trouve qu’à la frontière E est localement équivalent, par un homéomorphisme biHöldérien qui préserve la frontière, à un cône minimal glissant contenu dans un demi plan Ω, avec frontière glissante ∂Ω. De plus les seuls cônes minimaux possibles dans ce cas sont ∂Ω seul, ou son union avec un cône de type P_+ ou Y_+. / This thesis focuses on the existence and regularity of minimal sets. First we show, in Chapter 3, that there exists (at least) a minimizerfor Reifenberg Plateau problems. That is, Given a compact set B⊂R^n, and a subgroup L of the Čech homology group H_(d-1) (B;G) of dimension (d-1)over an abelian group G, we will show that there exists a compact set E⊃B such that L is contained in the kernel of the homomorphism H_(d-1) (B;G)→H_(d-1) (E;G) induced by the natural inclusion map B→E, and such that the Hausdorff measure H^d (E∖B) is minimal under these constraints. Next we will show, in Chapter 4, that if E is a sliding almost minimal set of dimension 2, in a smooth domain Σ that looks locally like a half space, and with sliding boundary , and if in addition E⊃∂Σ, then, near every point of the boundary ∂Σ, E is locally biHölder equivalent to a sliding minimal cone (in a half space Ω, and with sliding boundary ∂Ω). In addition the only possible sliding minimal cones in this case are ∂Ω or the union of ∂Ω with a cone of type P_+ or Y_+.