UNIVERSIDAD DE COLIMA

HARMONIC STRUCTURE IN A SELFAFFINE

SET OF HATAS TYPE
SUMMER RESEARCH REPORT
XX Verano de la Investigacion Cientfica y Tecnologa del Pacfico 2015

Blanca Yazmn Radillo Murgua

Tutor:
Ricardo Alberto Saenz Casas

Colima, Col., August 14th, 2015.

Introduction

This report summarizes is the results of the program XX Verano de la

Investigaci
on Cientfica y Tecnologa del Pacfico 2015, research summer
program by the University of Colima and the DELFIN program.
In the first section, we introduce fractals, define some concepts like selfsimilarity, mention some properties and theorems to help us to understand
fractals as mathematical objects.
Then, we focus on a fractal defined by a self-similar structure that satisfies
a very particular equation.
After that, we explore harmonic functions, functions which minimize the energy and calculate its values given a collection of initial conditions. Finally,
we give some conclusions about our work.

Preliminaries

2.1

Contractions and Self-similarity

Let (M, d) be a metric space. A contraction f : M M is a Lipschitz

function with constant < 1, that is, f satisfies
d(f (x), f (y)) d(x, y) where 0 < < 1 ,
similarity in Rn is a function f :Rn Rn such that
|f (x) f (y)| = |x y|.
We denote the Lipschitz constant of f by L(f ). From the contraction principle in a complete metric space, f has a unique fixed point, and we write
it as F (f ). First, we are interested in a class of sets called self similar.
Definition 2.1. Let A X, we say that A is self-similar if there exist
contractions f1 , f2 , f3 , ..., fk such that
A=

k
[

fi (A)

i=1

.
We call a self-similar set defined by linear contractions a self-affine set.
Now, given a set of contractions, does it always exist a set that is self-similar
under them? The answer is given by the next theorem:
Theorem 2.1. Let (X, d) be a complete metric space and X be a finite set
of contractions on X. Then there exists a unique non-empty compact set
A X such that
[
A=
f (A).
f M

Notice that the converse its not true. A self-similar set can be defined
by more than one family of contractions.
Definition 2.2. We say that the contractions f1 , f2 , ..., fN Rn satisfy
the open set condition if there exists an open set U 6= such that
- fi (U ) U ;
- fi (U ) fj (U ) = for every i 6= j.
Now, the most basic question with regard to self-similar sets is about
their connectivity. Here we give a necessary and sufficient condition for a
self-similar set to be connected.
Theorem 2.2. The self-similar set V is connected if and only if the set
family {f1 (V ), f2 (V ), ..., fm (V )} is such that each of the sets
f1 (V ) f2 (V ), f2 (V ) f3 (V ), ..., fm1 (V ) fm (V )
is non-empty.
The proofs of the results of this section can be seen on [2].

Self-affine set of Hatas type

In this project, we study a self-affine set determined by two linear contractions f1 and f2 with fixed points 0, 1, respectively, and with the same connectivity condition Hata tree [f1 (f1 (F (f2 ))) = f1 (f1 (1)) = f2 (F (f1 )) = f2 (0)].
First, we need the following definitions.
Definition 3.1. Given the contractions f1 , f2 , ..., fN of the self-similar V
and S = {1, 2, ..., N }, we define the critical set C as
[
C=
(fi (K) fj (V ))
i,jS,i6=j

and the post critical set V0 as

V0 =

fi1
fi1
(C).
m
1

i1 ,...,im S

Definition 3.2. For m a non negative integer and let V0 be the post critical
set or the boundary of V , then, we define
Vm+1 = f1 (Vm ) f2 (Vm ).


x
y
x
y
and
Now, we see the Hata tree. Let f1 ((x, y)) =
+ ,
2 2 3 
2
2 3 


2
1
1
f2 ((x, y)) = (x, y) +
, 0 its contractions, then C =
,0
and
3
3
3
V0 = {p1 , p2 , p3 } where


p1 = (0, 0)
p2 = (1, 0)
!
1 3
.
p3 =
,
2 6

Figure 1: Approximation to Hata tree. The graph of V0 .

Figure 2: Approximation to Hata tree. The graph of V3 .

Figure 3: Approximation to Hata tree. The graph of V12 .

Figure 4: Approximation to Hata tree, where the red region is f1 (V ) and

the blue region is f2 (V ).
its called Tyre killer fractal.
 And, we see our fractal,


 Let f1 ((x, y)) =
x
x
y
2
y
1
and f2 ((x, y)) = (x, y) +
+ ,
, 0 . Its critical set
2 2 3 2 3 2
3
3
and post critical set are the same of the Hata tree.

Figure 5: Approximation to Tyre killer fractal. The graph of V0 .

Figure 6: Approximation to Tyre killer fractal. The graph of V3 .

Figure 7: Approximation to Tyre killer fractal. The graph of V12 .

Figure 8: Approximation to Tyre killer fractal, where the red region is f1 (V )

and the blue region is f2 (V ).

Harmonic structure in the Tyre killer fractal

Here we are going to introduce the main objects of our study in the Tyre
killer fractal, harmonic functions. Before state some notation:
Notation 4.1. For w Wm , where Wm = {w1 w2 ...wm : wi {1, 2} f or i =
1, 2, ..., m 1 and wm {1, 2, 3}}, we denote:
pw = fw1 fw2 ... fwm1 (pwm )
Instead of p(1,2,3) we will write p123 (in general, for any multi-index we are
going to write it like this) as there cant be confusion on the multi-index and
we notice that if w is the length m, pw Vm .
First, we need to define the laplacians:
Notation 4.2. For a set V , we define l (V ) = {f : f maps V into R}.
Definition 4.1. (Laplacians) A symmetric linear operator H : l (V )
l (V ) is called a laplacian on V if it satisfies
L1) H is non-positive definite
L2) Hu = 0 if and only if u is a constant on V , and
L3) Hpq 0 for all p 6= q V .
We use LA(V ) to denote the collection of Laplacians on V .
Definition 4.2. Let V be a finite set. A symmetric bilinear form E : l (V )
l (V ) R is a Dirichlet form if
1) E(u, u) 0 for any u l (V ),
2) E(u, u) = 0 if and only if u is constant on V ,
and
3) it has the Markov property: for any u l (V ), E(u, u) E(u, u), where u
is defined by

1 if u(p) 1,

u(p) if 0 < u(p) < 1,

u=

0 if u(p) 0.
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Definition 4.3. (Energy) Let m be a non-negative integer, the energy Em

of a function is a Dirichlet form such that:
Em+1 (u, v) :=

X 1
Em (u fi , v fi )
ri
iS

where u, v l (Vm+1 ), r1 , r2 , ..., rN > 0 and S = {1, 2, ..., N }.

1 t
R DRw ,
rw w
where Rw : l (Vm ) l (V0 ) is defined by Rw f = f Fw for w Wm .
Considering the last definition, we may regard (Vm , Hm ) as a self-similar
sequence of r networks, where r = (r1 , r2 , ..., rN ).
Also, if Hm LA(Vm ), we write Hm as Hm =

wWm

Definition 4.4. (Harmonic structure) (D, r) is called a harmonic structure if and only if {(Vm , Hm )}m0 is such that (Vm , Hm ) is a self-similar
sequence of r networks and
min{Em+1 (v, v) : v Vm+1 , v|Vm = u} = Em (u, u)
for all m 0. Also, a harmonic structure is regular if 0 < ri < 1 for all
i S.
For the Tyre killer fractal, we have that V0 = {p1 , p2 , p3 }. Define D
LA(V0 ) by the matrix

b 1 1
b
1
1 0
b
0 b
and r by (r, 1 r2 ) for r (0, 1). If we take a regular harmonic structure,
rb = 1.
Now, for the last definitions, we can argument the following proposition:
Proposition 4.1. For any l (V0 ), there exist a unique u l (Vm ) such
that u|V0 = and E(u, u) = min{E(v, v) : v l (Vm ), v|V0 = }. Furthermore, u is the unique solution of
(
(Hm v)|Vm \V0 = 0
(1)
v|V0 =
for all m 1.
If u satisfy the last proposition, then u is called as a harmonic function.
This implies the follow:
Corollary 4.1. Let u be a harmonic function. Then, for any p V0 and
any m 0, (Hm u)(p) = (Du)(p).
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Then, we want to apply this to Tyre killer fractal. Using its selfsimilarity, this will be sufficient with solving the case for m = 1, because it
can be constructed inductively. Suppose that:
u(p1 ) = u1
u(p2 ) = u2
u(p3 ) = u3
and V1 \V0 = {p21 , p23 }, u(pw ) = uw . Now, we can find the harmonic function using the proposition 4.1, where H1 , in the basis {p1 , p2 , p3 , p21 , p23 },
is

b
b+1
1

0
0

r
r
r

1
1
0

0
0

1 r2
1 r2
1

0
0

;
r

r
b

1
b
b+1
b

0
r

2
2
2
1

r
r
1

r
1

b
b
0
0
0

1 r2
1 r2
hence, we obtain that
u21 = u23 =

1
b2 1
u1 + 2 u2 .
2
b
b

The previous calculation gives us a recursive formula for the calculation

of an harmonic function u, when the initial values are given. First, let w be
the subscript of a point in the Tyre killer fractal. By the conditions of the
fractal, it is convenient that we take the reduced form of w, i.e., we take w
as w = w0 ij, if:
1) delete the last numbers until i 6= j,
2) i = 1, j = 2, chance w by w0 3,
3) i = 1, j = 3, chance w by w0 21.
Notice that all the subscripts in reduced form ij are equal to 21 or 23. Then,
if w = w0 ij in its reduced form, u(pw ) is defined as
u(pw0 21 ) = u(pw0 23 ) =

b2 1
1
u(pw0 1 ) + 2 u(pw0 2 ).
2
b
b

Figure 9 shows the graphics of the harmonic function with different parameters:

1.0

0.5

0.0

0.2
0.1
0.0
1.0

0.2
0.1
0.0

1.0

0.5

0.5

0.0

0.0

0.0

u1 = u2 = 0, u3 = 1 and b = 2

0.5

1.0

u1 = u3 = 0, u2 = 1 and b = 2

1.0

0.5

0.0
0.20.10.0
1.0

1.0

0.5

0.5

0.0
0.0

0.5

0.0

1.0

u1 = u3 = 0, u2 = 1 and b = 3

u1 = u3 = 0, u2 = 1 and b =

Figure 9: Harmonic functions

0.2
0.1
0.0

Conclusions

We found as example of a fractal that satisfies [f1 (f1 (1)) = f2 (0)], its post
critical set is finite; it is analogous to the well known Hata tree set. Using
the multiple properties of our self-similar set V , we constructed the collection of harmonic functions on V with different initial conditions and defined
a harmonic structure on this.
There are still problems to study, regarding these harmonic functions, as if
the harmonic function restricted to a side is continuous, monotone, differentiable, or if there exist initial conditions such that the restricted function
is a line, and another questions about this.

References
[1] Kigami, J., Analysis on fractals, Cambridge University Press, United
Kingdom, 2001.
[2] Yamaguti, M., Hata, M. and Kigami, J., Mathematics of fractals,
American Mathematical Society, 1997.
Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Colima, Colima, Colima,
Mexico
Email-address: blancarmurguia@gmail.com

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