Koch snowflake is nowhere differentiable

fractal-analysisfractalsreal-analysis

In stein's real analysis,

Prove that the von Koch curve $t \mapsto \mathcal{K}^\ell(t), 1/4 < \ell \le 1/2$ is continuous but nowhere differentiable. [Hint: If $\mathcal{K}'(t)$ exists for some $t$, then $\lim_{n \to \infty} {\mathcal{K}(u_n) – \mathcal{K}(v_n) \over u_n – v_n}$ must exist, where $u_n \le t \le v_n$, and $u_n – v_n \to 0$. Choose $u_n = k/4^n$ and $v_n = (k+1)/4^n$].

I chose the brute force way and tried to get an upper bound or lower bound on it:
\begin{align*}
{\mathcal{K}(u_n) – \mathcal{K}(v_n) \over u_n – v_n} &= {\Big(\mathcal{K}_1(u_n) + \sum_{j=1}^\infty \mathcal{K}_{j+1}(u_n) – \mathcal{K}_j(u_n)\Big) – \Big( \mathcal{K}_1(v_n) + \sum_{j=1}^\infty \mathcal{K}_{j+1}(v_n) – \mathcal{K}_j(v_n)\Big)} \over u_n – v_n\\
&= (-4^n)(\mathcal{K}_1(u_n) – \mathcal{K}_1(v_n)) + \sum_{j=1}^\infty \Big((-4^n)(\mathcal{K}_{j+1}(u_n) – \mathcal{K}_{j+1}(v_n)) – (-4^n)(\mathcal{K}_j(u_n) – \mathcal{K}_j(v_n))\Big) \\
&\ge -4\ell + \sum_{j=1}^\infty (1-4\ell) (4\ell)^j = -\infty
\end{align*}

where I used the fact that $|\mathcal{K}_j(t) – \mathcal{K}_j(s)| \le (4 \ell)^j|t-s|$. However, as you can tell, the bound is meaningless.
($\mathcal{K}$ is the vonKoch curve and $\mathcal{K}_j$ is the $j^{th}$ stage in the construction of the Koch curve:

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EDIT:
More info is provided by MilesB's answer.

Any other suggestions/hint would be much appreciated!

Best Answer

Setting the scene for this problem:

According to the copy of Stein that I found online, for a given $l$, $K:[0,1] \to \mathbb{R}^2$ is defined as follows.

We define each $K_j:[0,1] \to \mathbb{R}^2$ for integer $j \ge 0$

At $t = 0$, $\frac{1}{4^j}$, $\frac{2}{4^j}$, ... $1$, $K_j(t)$ is a vertex of the curve. For all other values of $t$, $K_j(t)$ is a straight-line interpolation between adjacent vertices. The distance between vertices is $l^j$. We can define $K_0(t) = (t,0)$ for convenience.

Vertices coincide as $j$ increases, so $K_{j+r}(\frac{n}{4^j})=K_j(\frac{n}{4^j})$ for integer $n$ and $r \ge 0$. For construction purposes it's useful to note that:

$K_{j+1}(\frac{4n}{4^{j+1}})=K_j(\frac{4n}{4^{j+1}})$ from above

$K_{j+1}(\frac{4n+1}{4^{j+1}})=l \cdot K_j(\frac{4n+4}{4^{j+1}})+(1-l) \cdot K_j(\frac{4n}{4^{j+1}}))$

$K_{j+1}(\frac{4n+2}{4^{j+1}})=\frac12 \cdot (K_j(\frac{4n}{4^{j+1}}) +K_j(\frac{4n+4}{4^{j+1}}))+f(K_j(\frac{4n+4}{4^{j+1}})-K_j(\frac{4n}{4^{j+1}}))\cdot \sqrt{l-\frac14}$

where $f:(x,y) \to (-y,x)$ is an anti-clockwise rotation.

$K_{j+1}(\frac{4n+3}{4^{j+1}})=l \cdot K_j(\frac{4n}{4^{j+1}})+(1-l) \cdot K_j(\frac{4n+4}{4^{j+1}}))$

It is left as an exercise to show that $|K_j(\frac{n+1}{4^j})-K_j(\frac{n}{4^j})|=l^j$

$K(t) = K_1(t)+\sum_{j=1}^{\infty}(K_{j+1}(t)-K_j(t))$ which Stein shows converges to be a continuous curve.

Suggested approach to question of differentiability:

The first point to note is that for given $n$, $K(t) = K_n(t)+\sum_{j=n}^{\infty}(K_{j+1}(t)-K_j(t))$ and if $t=\frac{k}{4^n}$ for integer $k$ then for $j \ge n$, $K_{j+1}(t)-K_j(t)=0$ by the coinciding vertex property above, so

$K(\frac{k}{4^n})=K_n(\frac{k}{4^n})$

and

$K(\frac{k+1}{4^n})=K_n(\frac{k+1}{4^n})$

So $|K(\frac{k+1}{4^n}) - K(\frac{k}{4^n})| =l^n$ because these are adjacent vertices on $K_n$

The hint given by the textbook, is not entirely clear. For a given $t$ and $n$, we need to choose integer $k$ such that $\frac{k}{4^n} \le t \le \frac{k+1}{4^n}$, but note that $k$ depends on $n$.

Now consider what happens to $\large \frac{|K(\frac{k+1}{4^n}) - K(\frac{k}{4^n})|}{\frac{k+1}{4^n}-\frac{k}{4^n}} = \frac{l^n}{(1/4)^n}$ as $n \to \infty$

For $l > 1/4$ this will not converge which means that the derivative at $t$ does not exist.

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