Work

Lifting curved Kakeya sets to linear Kakeya sets

Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: We prove that many curved Kakeya problems, originally motivated by Hörmander's oscillatory integral problem, lift to the classical Kakeya problem in higher dimensions. As a consequence, if the classical Kakeya set conjecture were true in all dimensions, the families of curves whose curved Kakeya sets have full dimension are dense among Hörmander-type families. This is in contrast to the nowhere dense Bourgain's condition, which is a necessary condition for best-case curved Kakeya maximal function estimates. Furthermore the linear Kakeya set conjecture would imply a fairly complete understanding of Kakeya sets of quadratic curves, as first studied systematically by Wisewell. These results give a better understanding of a question posed by Guo--Guth--Nadjimzadah--Shen--Zhang, and they more generally show that the classical Kakeya conjecture in high dimensions rests on a broad range of curved Kakeya problems in lower dimensions.
Language: English
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7212068932
Cites: 1
Cited by: 1
Related to: 10