Fractal dimensions of the Markov and Lagrange spectra near $3$

TL;DR

This paper investigates the fractal dimensions of the intersection of the Markov and Lagrange spectra near 3, providing an asymptotic formula involving the Lambert function and analyzing the optimality of this approximation.

Contribution

It derives a precise asymptotic expression for the Hausdorff dimension near 3 and proves the optimality of this approximation among smooth functions.

Findings

Asymptotic formula for d(3+ε) involving Lambert W function

Demonstration that the approximation is optimal among C^2 functions

Analysis of the oscillatory behavior of second derivatives of approximating functions

Abstract

The Lagrange spectrum $\mathcal{L}$ and Markov spectrum $\mathcal{M}$ are subsets of the real line with complicated fractal properties that appear naturally in the study of Diophantine approximations. It is known that the Hausdorff dimension of the intersection of these sets with any half-line coincide, that is, $\mathrm{dim}_{\mathrm{H}}(\mathcal{L} \cap (-\infty, t)) = \mathrm{dim}_{\mathrm{H}}(\mathcal{M} \cap (-\infty, t)):= d(t)$ for every $t \geq 0$. It is also known that $d(3)=0$ and $d(3+\varepsilon)>0$ for every $\varepsilon>0$. We show that, for sufficiently small values of $\varepsilon > 0$, one has the approximation $d(3+\varepsilon) = 2\cdot\frac{W(e^{c_0}|\log \varepsilon|)}{|\log \varepsilon|}+\mathrm{O}\left(\frac{\log |\log \varepsilon|}{|\log \varepsilon|^2}\right)$, where $W$ denotes the Lambert function (the inverse of $f(x)=xe^x$) and $c_0=-\log\log((3+\sqrt{5})/2) \approx 0.0383$. We also show that this result is optimal for the approximation of $d(3+\varepsilon)$ by "reasonable" functions, in the sense that, if $F(t)$ is a $C^2$ function such that $d(3+\varepsilon) = F(\varepsilon) + \mathrm{o}\left(\frac{\log |\log \varepsilon|}{|\log \varepsilon|^2}\right)$, then its second derivative $F''(t)$ changes sign infinitely many times as $t$ approaches $0$.