Fractals, Vol. 10, No.

1 (2002) 77–89

c World Scientific Publishing Company

THE BOUNDARY OF THE ATTRACTOR OF

A RECURRENT ITERATED FUNCTION SYSTEM

F. M. DEKKING∗ and P. VAN DER WAL†

Thomas Stieltjes Institute for Mathematics and Delft University of Technology
Faculty ITS, Mekelweg 4, 2628 CD Delft, The Netherlands
∗F.M.Dekking@ITS.TUDelft.nl
†P.vanderWal@ITS.TUDelft.nl

Received June 16, 2000; Accepted April 18, 2001

Abstract
We prove for a subclass of recurrent iterated function systems (also called graph-directed iter-
ated function systems) that the boundary of their attractor is again the attractor of a recurrent
IFS. Our method is constructive and permits computation of the Hausdorff dimension of the
attractor and its boundary.

1. INTRODUCTION condition for C to have a non-empty interior and to

Recently, several authors have studied the geome-
try of self-similar tiles, in particular the nature of
their (topological) boundaries.1 – 6 Typically, these
authors consider compact sets C in Rd which sat-
isfy the self-similarity equation
[
l(C) = (C + d) (1)
d∈D
for some expanding similarity l and some finite set
D of points in Rd . Moreover, it is assumed that l
preserves a lattice R and that D ⊂ R. Finally, a
tiling condition is added, namely that the interiors
of C + d and C + e do not intersect. One would not
call C a tile if it has an empty interior. A sufficient
satisfy the tiling condition is that D is a digit set,
i.e. a complete residue system for R/l(R).
Under this digit set condition, Duvall et al.2
and Strichartz and Wang5 show how to obtain the
boundary ∂C of C as a union of compact sets
C1 , . . . , Cr which satisfy the more general version
of Eq. (1)
[
r [
l(Ci ) = (Cj + d) 1≤i≤r (2)
j=1 d∈Dij
for some finite sets Dij ⊆ R, and where the tiling
condition is generalized to requiring that the inte-
riors of the sets Cj + d and Ck + e do not intersect

77
78 F. M. Dekking & P. van der Wal

for d ∈ Dij , e ∈ Dik and 1 ≤ i, j, k ≤ r (except of to a non-empty limit set K(S). Then we can find
course when j = k and d = e). an M -recurrent IFS with attractor (C0 , C1 , . . . , Cr )
The goal of the present work is to construct and such that C0 = K(S).
to characterize the boundaries of self-similar sets Our main results follow from the results about
C, satisfying Eq. (1) and more generally of sets BCA’s and the relation between recurrent IFS’s
C1 , . . . , Cr satisfying Eq. (2), without the tiling con- and BCA’s. Let C be a component of the attrac-
dition. Our approach is to generate the bound- tor (C1 , . . . , Cr ) of an M -recurrent IFS. Then we
ary by iterates of a d-dimensional substitution. An can find another M -recurrent IFS with attractor
advantage of this approach is that the iterates al- (B0 , B1 , . . . , Bl ), such that the boundary of C is
ways converge to the boundary of the tile, since equal to B0 . In addition, we can calculate the Haus-
the d-dimensional substitutions can distinguish in dorff dimension of C and of its boundary.
some sense between boundary points and interior
points of the limiting set (cf. Theorem 3). This
shows that the “well-behavedness” condition on the 2. AN INTRODUCTORY EXAMPLE
boundary which Duvall et al.2 require in their anal-
Consider a two-dimensional tile C defined by
ysis, is in some sense superfluous (cf. their Remark [
on p. 10). 2C = C + D = (C + d)
Let (C1 , . . . , Cr ) be a vector of non-empty com- d∈D
pact sets in RSd that satisfy Eq. (2), where we only where 2C = {2x : x ∈ C}, and
assume that rj=1 Dij is non-empty for each i. For
D = {(−1, −1), (0, 0), (1, 0), (0, 1)} .
reasons of simplicity, we will assume that l is just
an integer scaling, i.e. l(x) = M x, where M ≥ 2 is Since D is a digit set for the lattice Z2 , the dimen-
an integer, and that the sets Dij are subsets of Zd . sion of the boundary of C can be calculated using
However, the results in this paper can be general- the contact matrix as described in Refs. 2 and 5.
ized to the case where l is an expansive similarity However, with this example, we will demonstrate
preserving a lattice R and Dij ⊂ R. We will call the use of branching cellular automata. We approx-
the pair (M, (Dij )1≤i, j≤r ) an M -recurrent IFS. imate the tile C as follows. Let C (0) = {(0, 0)} and
To analyze this M -recurrent IFS, we introduce recursively define sets C (1) , C (2) , . . . by
another way to generate compact sets in Rd , by 1
means of (deterministic) branching cellular au- C (n+1) = C (n) + n+1 D .
2
tomata (BCA), which can also be viewed as d- Then C is the Hausdorff limit of the sequence
dimensional substitutions. Stochastic BCA’s were C (0) , C (1) , . . . (cf. Fig. 1).
already explored in Dekking and van der Wal These approximating sets can also be obtained
(2001).7 A finite set T is associated with each BCA, by means of a branching cellular automaton, i.e. a
a set which we will refer to as the set of types. For two-dimensional substitution with neighbor depen-
any subset S of T , a sequence (Kn (S))n≥0 of closed dence. Let A = {0, 1} be our alphabet and define a
and uniformly bounded subsets of Rd is defined. In map σ : A3×3 → A2×2 by
Ref. 7, results were given concerning convergence of
the sets (Kn (S))n≥0 to a limit set K(S) (w.r.t Haus- ∗ ∗ 0 ∗ ∗ 1
0 0 0 1
dorff metric) and the Hausdorff dimension of K(S). ∗ 0 ∗ → ∗ 0 ∗ →
0 0 0 0
The boundary ∂K(S) of K(S) was shown to be the ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗
limit set of a sequence (Kn (∂S))n≥0 , for a specific
subset ∂S of T . In this paper, we re-formulate these ∗ ∗ 0 ∗ ∗ 1
1 0 1 1
results for deterministic BCA’s. ∗ 1 ∗ → ∗ 1 ∗ → .
1 1 1 1
We prove an equivalence result for M -recurrent ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗
IFS’s and BCA’s. Consider an M -recurrent IFS Here a ∗ stands for either 0 or 1. We extend σ to a
with attractor (C1 , . . . , Cr ) and fix a set C = Ci for substitution v → σ(v) = w with v, w ∈ AZ×Z in the
some 1 ≤ i ≤ r. Then we can find a BCA with set obvious way (see also Sec. 4). So for example
of types T and a set S ⊆ T such that the associated
sets (Kn (S))n≥0 converge to C. On the other hand, w2i, 2j+1 w2i+1, 2j+1 10
σ(vij ) = =
consider a BCA with set of types T and let S ⊆ T be w2i, 2j w2i+1, 2j 11
such that the associated sets (Kn (S))n≥0 converge if vij = 1 and vi+1, j+1 = 0 .
 The Boundary of the Attractor of a Recurrent Iterated Function System 79

Fig. 1 From top left to bottom right, the approximating sets C (0) , . . . , C (5) of the tile C generated by the two-recurrent IFS
in Sec. 2.

We take as starting word for the substitution the ∗∗

Let S consist of the types of the form . We
word u, which has a 1 at position (0, 0) and 00 s 1∗
elsewhere: define the “boundary” ∂S of S by
· · · · · ( )
1 1
· 0 0 0 · ∂S = S
1 1
u= · 0 1 0 ·
· 0 0 0 ·
and we define sets K0 (∂S), K1 (∂S), . . . by
· · · · ·
Define sets K0 , K1 , . . . in the plane by 1
Kn (∂S) = {(i, j): the type of (σ n (u))ij
2n
1
Kn = {(i, j) : (σ n (u))ij = 1} is an element of ∂S} .
2n
where σ n is the n-fold iterate of σ. It is easy to It turns out that the sets Kn (∂S) converge to a
check that the substitution σ is constructed in such set K(∂S) (Proposition 1), which is the boundary
a way, that C (n) = Kn for all n. of the tile C (Theorem 3). In Fig. 2, we plotted
Define the type of a letter vij in a word v ∈ AZ×Z K0 (∂S), . . . , K5 (∂S).
to be the word Note that the type of a letter vij in a word
vi, j+1 vi+1, j+1 v ∈ AZ×Z determines the types of the letters in
vij vi+1, j σ(v) that have been substituted for vij , i.e. of the
four letters (σ(v))2i, 2j , (σ(v))2i+1, 2j , (σ(v))2i, 2j+1
and let T = A2×2 be the set of all possible types. and (σ(v))2i+1, 2j+1 .
80 F. M. Dekking & P. van der Wal

Fig. 2 From top left to bottom right, the sets K0 (∂S), . . . , K5 (∂S) approximating the boundary ∂C of the tile C from Sec. 2.

Sr
Let s be a type in T and let v ∈ AZ×Z be such of {1, . . . , m} such that j=1 Qij is non-empty for
that the type of v0 is s. Define the offspring matrix each i. Then the pair
M = (mst )s, t∈T by
((fk )1≤k≤m , (Qij )1≤i,j≤r )
mst = Card ({(i, j) : i, j ∈ {0, 1},
is called a recurrent iterated function system.
the type of (σ(v))ij is t}) . Let H be the set of compact subsets of Rd and
In this example, M is a 16 × 16 matrix. Let M∂S let H0 be H without the empty set. On the space
denote the matrix M restricted to ∂S (which is a Hr , define g by
14 × 14 irreducible matrix), and let λ∂S denote the
g(A1 , . . . , Ar )
largest eigenvalue of M∂S . If we denote the bound-
 
ary of C by ∂C, then by Theorem 2, we can express [
r [ [
r [
the dimension of ∂C in terms of λ∂S : = fk (Aj ), . . . , fk (Aj ) .
log λ∂S j=1 k∈Q1j j=1 k∈Qrj
dimH ∂C = dimH K(∂S) = .
log 2 In Bandt (1989)8 it is shown that, restricted to H0r ,
A simple computation shows that λ∂S = 3, g has a unique fixed point (C1 , . . . , Cr ), i.e.
hence the dimension of the boundary of C equals
log 3/ log 2. g(C1 , . . . , Cr ) = (C1 , . . . , Cr )
and (C1 , . . . , Cr ) is an attractor in H0r , i.e. for all
(A1 , . . . , Ar ) ∈ H0r
3. RECURRENT ITERATED
FUNCTION SYSTEMS lim gn (A1 , . . . , Ar ) = (C1 , . . . , Cr )
n→∞

Let m, r ≥ 1 be integers and f1 , . . . , fm be contrac- where the limit is with respect to the Hausdorff
tions on Rd . For 1 ≤ i, j ≤ r, let Qij be a subset metric.
 The Boundary of the Attractor of a Recurrent Iterated Function System 81
(n)
We shall always approximate the Ci by sets Ci It is easily proved by induction that for n ≥ 0
given by
(n) [
r
(n)
(n)
(C1 , . . . , Cr(n) ) = g ({0 }, . . . , {0 })
n d d
for n ≥ 0 Ci = Ci (j), 1 ≤ i ≤ r.
j=1
where 0d denotes the origin in Rd .
(n)
Consider the following special case of a recur- For an M -recurrent IFS, the sets Ci (j) satisfy
rent IFS. For 1 ≤ i, j ≤ r, let DijS be finite a nice recursion relation.
subsets of Zd , such that forS each i, rj=1 Dij is
non-empty. Let mS = Card( 1≤i, j≤r Dij ), and let Lemma 1. For i, j ∈ {1, . . . , r} and n = 0, 1, . . . ,
b : {1, . . . , m} → 1≤i, j≤r Dij be a bijection. De- we have
fine contractions f1 , . . . , fm by
[
r
(Ci (h) + M −(n+1) Dhj ) .
−1 (n+1) (n)
fk (x) = M (x + b(k)) Ci (j) =
h=1
where M ≥ 2 is an integer and define
Proof. The proof will be by induction. For n = 0,
Qij = {k : b(k) ∈ Dij } both sides of the equation equal M −1 Dij . Assume
that the lemma is proved for n − 1. Then, using the
to obtain the recurrent IFS ((fk ), (Qij )). The pair
induction hypothesis in the third step,
(M, (Dij )1≤i, j≤r )
(n+1) [
r [ (n)
will be called an M -recurrent IFS. Ci (j) = fk (Cl (j))
l=1 k∈Qil
For an M -recurrent IFS, the fixed point equa-
tions can be written as [r
−1 (n)
= M (Cl (j) + Dil )
[
r [ l=1
Ci = fk (Cj ) [r [
r
M −1
(n−1)
j=1 k∈Qij = (Cl (h)
[
r [ l=1 h=1
!
= M −1 (Cj + b(k))
−n
j=1 k∈Qij +M Dhj ) + Dil
[
r [
= M −1 (Cj + e) [
r [
r
M −1 (Cl
(n−1)
j=1 e∈Dij
= (h) + Dil )
h=1 l=1
!
for 1 ≤ i ≤ r, which is equivalent to −(n+1)
+M Dhj
[
r
M Ci = (Cj + Dij ) [
r
(Ci (h) + M −(n+1) Dhj ) .
(n)
j=1 = 
h=1
where Cj + Dij is short for {x + y: x ∈ Cj , y ∈ Dij }.
By convention, Cj + Dij = ∅ when Cj or Dij is
empty.
(n)
To obtain a refinement of the sets Ci (for an 4. DEFINITION OF A BCA
(n)
example see Fig. 3 in Sec. 9), define sets Ci (j) for For notational convenience, the definitions in this
1 ≤ i, j ≤ r and n ≥ 0 by section are for dimension 1, but they can be easily
extended to higher dimensions. Let A be a finite set
(n)
((C1 (1), . . . , Cr(n) (1)) = gn ({0d }, ∅, . . . , ∅) with a designated element denoted 0 and let M, N
(n) be integers with M ≥ 2 and N ≥ 0. We will refer to
((C1 (2), . . . , Cr(n) (2)) = gn (∅, {0d }, ∅, . . . , ∅) A as the alphabet, to M as the substitution length
.. .. .. and to N as the interaction length.
. . .
Let σ be a map from A2N +1 to AM such that
(n)
((C1 (r), . . . , Cr(n) (r)) = gn (∅, . . . , ∅, {0d }) . σ(02N +1 ) = 0M (here 0M denotes the word of length
82 F. M. Dekking & P. van der Wal

M of all zeroes). Extend σ to a substitution on AZ non-trivial if for all s ∈ U there is an n ≥ 1 such

by defining the image w = σ(v) of v ∈ AZ to be that mnss > 0.
Let S ⊆ T and define
k
wkM . . . w(k+1)M −1 = σ(βN (v))
S ≥ = {t ∈ T : there is an s ∈ S such that t → s}
where k ∈ Z and βN k−N · · · vk+N . Define the S ≤ = {t ∈ T : there is an s ∈ S such that s → t} .
k (v) = v

iterates of σ by σ (v) = v and σ n (v) = σ(σ n−1 (v))

0

for n = 1, 2, . . . . Define a branching cellular automa- The following two results concerning the con-
ton (BCA) as the quintuple vergence of the sequence (Kn (S))n≥0 follow from
Ref. 7, Theorem 2.
(A, M, N, σ, u)
Proposition 1. Let S be a subset of T . If S =
Z
where u ∈ A consists of only finitely many nonzero S≥, S = S≤ or S is a communicating class, then
letters and serves as the starting word of the (Kn (S))n≥0 converges.
substitution.
Let R be the maximum of 1 and d M −1 e and
MN Let u be the starting word of the BCA, u having
define T = A 2R+1 to be the set of types. A let- only finitely many nonzero letters. Define
ter wk in a word w ∈ AZ is said to be of type V = {t ∈ T : there is a type t letter in u}
t ∈ T if wk−R · · · wk+R = t. The type of wk in w
determines the types of the letters (σ(w))kM , . . . , and
(σ(w))(k+1)M −1 in σ(w). By 0̄, we denote the type U(S) = {U ⊆ T : U is a nontrivial communicating
02R+1 ∈ T .
Fix a set S ⊆ T which does not contain the type class in S ≥ ∩ V ≤ } .
0̄ and define for n ≥ 0
Theorem 1. Assume that (Kn (S))n≥0 converges
−n
Kn (S) = M {k ∈ Z: type of (σ (u))k
n to K(S). Then
[
is an element of S} . K(S) = K(U ) .
U ∈U (S)
Note that the sets Kn (S) are closed and uniformly
bounded. Fix a set S ⊆ T such that (Kn (S))n≥0 converges.
Let s ∈ T and let w ∈ AZ be such that the type For a communicating class U ⊆ U(S), let λU denote
of w0 is s. Define for t ∈ T the Perron-Frobenius eigenvalue of U . If U(S) = ∅,
then K(S) = ∅. If U(S) 6= ∅, define
J(s, t) = {k ∈ {0, . . . , M − 1}: λS = max λU .
U ∈U (S)
the type of (σ(w))k is t} .
The following theorem concerning the dimension of
The offspring matrix M = (mst )s,t∈T is defined by the limit set K(S) follows from Ref. 7, Theorem 4.

mst = Card(J(s, t)) . Theorem 2. If U(S) 6= ∅, then

log λS
dimH K(S) = .
log M
5. BCA’S: CONVERGENCE,
The following result shows how to obtain the
DIMENSION AND
boundary of the limit set of a BCA by simply con-
BOUNDARIES
sidering the appropriate subset of types. See Ref. 7,
Consider a BCA with a set of types T and off- Theorem 3 for a proof.
spring matrix M = (mst )s, t∈T . For types s, t ∈ T ,
we write s → t if there is an n ≥ 0 such that Theorem 3. Let S = {t ∈ T : t 6= 0̄} and let
mnst = (Mn )st > 0. We say that s and t commu- ∂S = {t ∈ T : t 6= 0̄, t → 0̄}. Then
nicate if s → t and t → s. The communicating
∂K(S) = K(∂S)
class U (t) consists of all types in T that commu-
nicate with t. A communicating class U is called where ∂K(S) denotes the boundary of K(S).
 The Boundary of the Attractor of a Recurrent Iterated Function System 83

6. FROM M-RECURRENT IFS
TO BCA
We consider the attractor (C1 , . . . , Cr ) of a d-
dimensional M -recurrent IFS (M, (Dij )1≤i, j≤r ), i.e.
(C1 , . . . , Cr ) is the unique non-empty solution of
{1, . . . , r} and with designated element ∅ such that
C = K(S), where S = {t ∈ T : t 6= ¯ ∅}.
The theorem will be proved in two steps. First,
we show that K(S) = K(S̃), where

[
r S̃ = {t ∈ T : t0d 6= ∅}
M Ci = (Cj + Dij ), 1 ≤ i ≤ r.
j=1
Fix an i0 ∈ {1, . . . , r} and write C for Ci0 . In
this section, we will construct a BCA B with al-
phabet A the set of all subsets of {1, . . . , r}, with
designated element ∅, and with set of types T such
that C = K(S), where S = {t ∈ T : t 6= ¯∅}. Here, ¯ ∅ Proof.
denotes the type in T with all entries equal to ∅.
For x = (x1 , . . . , xd ) ∈ Zd , define
x mod M = (x1 mod M, . . . , xd mod M ) .
Construction 1. Define a BCA as follows. Let the
alphabet A be the set of all subsets of {1, . . . , r} and
let ∅ be the designated element. Choose S
the substi-
tution length to be M . Define D = 1≤i, j≤r Dij .
Let the interaction length N be the smallest integer
l which satisfies
t0d denoting the central letter of type t. Then we
prove that C = K(S̃).
Lemma 2. The sequences (Kn (S))n≥0 and
(Kn (S̃))n≥0 converge to the same limit set.
(cf. the introduction to Corollary 1 in
Ref. 7) By Proposition 1, (Kn (S))n≥0 converges to
K(S). Since S̃ ⊆ S, we have for all n ≥ 0 that
Kn (S̃) ⊆ Kn (S). If M −n x is a point in Kn (S),
then (σ n (u))x has a type s in S. Since s 6= 0̄, we
can find a y ∈ BR (σ n (u), x) such that
√ (σ n (u))y 6= 0.
So M −n y ∈ Kn (S̃) and kx − yk ≤ dR. Therefore,
√
Kn (S) ⊆ Kn (S̃) + {x ∈ Rd : kxk ≤ dRM −n } .
It thus follows from the definition of the Hausdorff
metric that (Kn (S̃))n≥0 converges to K(S). 

e − e mod M ⊆ M {−l, . . . , l}d , for all e ∈ D. Define for 1 ≤ j ≤ r

We will define a substitution σ in the following
Sj = {t ∈ T : j ∈ t0d } .
way. Let v be a word in A(2N +1)×···×(2N +1) , indexed
by {−N, . . . , N }d . Define for 1 ≤ i, j ≤ r Sr Sr
Then S̃ = j=1 Sj and Kn (S̃) = j=1 Kn (Sj ) for
Gi = {x ∈ {−N, . . . , N } : i ∈ vx }
d n = 0, 1, . . . .

[
r
Lemma 3. Let n ≥ 0 and 1 ≤ j ≤ r. Then
Hj = (M Gi + Dij ) .
i=1
[
r
Kn+1 (Sj ) = (Kn (Si ) + M −(n+1) Dij ) .
The word σ(v) in AM ×···×M , indexed by {0, . . . , i=1
M − 1}d , is then defined by
S
(σ(v))x = {i ∈ {1, . . . , r} : x ∈ Hi } Proof. To prove that ri=1 (Kn (Si ) + M −(n+1) Dij )
is contained in Kn+1 (Sj ), let M −(n+1) x be an ele-
x ∈ {0, . . . , M − 1}d . ment of Kn (Si ) + M −(n+1) Dij for some 1 ≤ i ≤ r.
Write
Let the starting word u be defined by u0d = {i0 }
and ux = ∅ for x 6= 0d . Denote the constructed x = M y + e with y ∈ M n Kn (Si ) and e ∈ Dij .
BCA (A, M, N, σ, u) by B.
Let
Theorem 4. Let B be the BCA constructed in Con-
struction 1 and denote its set of types by T . Then 1
B is a BCA with alphabet A the set of all subsets of z= (x − x mod M )
M
84 F. M. Dekking & P. van der Wal

and note that, since x mod M = M y+e mod M = and

e mod M ,
1 1 Gi = {a ∈ {−N, . . . , N }d : i ∈ va } .
y−z = (x − e) − (x − x mod M )
M M
Hence we can find i ∈ {1, . . . , r}, a ∈ {−N, . . . , N }d
1
= (x mod M − e) with i ∈ va and e ∈ Dij such that
M
1 x mod M = M a + e .
= (e mod M − e)
M
and thus y − z ∈ {−N, . . . , N } by our construction So, defining y = z + a, we can write
of N . Define v ∈ A(2N +1)×···×(2N +1) by
z x = M z + x mod M = M z + M (y − z) + e
v = βN (σ n (u))
= My + e
and index v by {−N, . . . , N }d . Since y ∈
M n Kn (Si ), we have
where y ∈ M n Kn (Si ), since i ∈ va = vy−z =
i ∈ (σ n (u))y = vy−z . (σ n (u))y , and e ∈ Dij . Hence

Hence [
r
M −(n+1) x ∈ (Kn (Si ) + M −(n+1) Dij ) . 
y − z ∈ Gi = {a ∈ {−N, . . . , N } : i ∈ va }
d
i=1

and so, since x mod M = M (y − z) + e

Proof of Theorem 4. We will actually prove that
[
r
C (n) = Kn (S̃), where C (n) is the nth approxima-
x mod M ∈ Hj = (M Gh + Dhj ) .
h=1
tion of C. Combined with Lemma 2, this yields
the statement of the theorem. Recall that C (n) =
Sr
Therefore, indexing σ(v) by {0, . . . , M − 1}d C (n) (j) (by Lemma 1) and that Kn (S) =
Sj=1
r
j=1 Kn (Sj ). We will prove by induction that for
j ∈ {h: x mod M ∈ Hh } = (σ(v))x mod M
all 1 ≤ j ≤ r and n ≥ 0 C (n) (j) = Kn (Sj ).
= (σ n+1 (u))x
• Recall that the starting word u is such that
and so x ∈ Kn+1 (Sj ). S u0d = {i0 } and ux = ∅ for all x 6= 0d ∈ Zd . Hence
To prove that Kn+1 (Sj ) is contained in ri=1
(Kn (Si ) + M −(n+1) Dij ), let M −(n+1) x be an ele- C (0) (i0 ) = {0d } = K0 (Si0 )
ment of Kn+1 (Sj ). Again, let
C (0) (j) = ∅ = K0 (Sj ) for j 6= i0 .
1
z= (x − x mod M )
M
• Assume that for all 1 ≤ j ≤ r we have C (n) (j) =
and define v ∈ A(2N +1)×···×(2N +1) by Kn (Sj ). If we fix 1 ≤ j ≤ r, then
z
v = βN (σ n (u)) . [
r
C (n+1) (j) = (C (n) (i) + M −(n+1) Dij )
Then we have, indexing v by {−N, . . . , N }d and i=1
σ(v) by {0, . . . , M − 1}d
[
r
j ∈ (σ n+1
(u))x = (σ(v))x mod M
= (Kn (Si ) + M −(n+1) Dij )
i=1
= {i : x mod M ∈ Hi }
= Kn+1 (Sj )
hence x mod M ∈ Hj , where
where the first equality follows from Lemma 1,
[
r
Hj = (M Gi + Dij ) the second equality from the induction hypothe-
i=1 sis, and the third from Lemma 3. 
 The Boundary of the Attractor of a Recurrent Iterated Function System 85

7. FROM BCA TO s ∈ S̄ = S̄ ≥ for every s ∈ U , it follows that U ⊆ S̄ ≥ .

M-RECURRENT IFS Hence, U(S) = U(S̄) and thus, applying Theorem 1
twice,
Consider a BCA (A, M, N, σ, u) with set of types [ [
T and offspring matrix M = (mst )s, t∈T . Let S K(S) = K(U ) = K(U ) = K(S̄) . 
be a subset of T with 0̄ ∈ / S such that the se- U ∈U (S) U ∈U (S̄)
quence (Kn (S))n≥0 converges to a non-empty limit
set K(S). In this section, we will construct an M - Construction 2. Let S be a subset of T with 0̄ ∈
/S
recurrent IFS I(S) with attractor (C0 , . . . , Cr ), such such that the sequence (Kn (S))n≥0 converges to a
that K(S) = C0 . The recurrent IFS I(S) will not non-empty limit set K(S). Write
be constructed from S directly, but from the subset S̄ = {s1 , . . . , sr }
S̄ of T defined by
where r is the cardinality of S̄. Define for s, t ∈ T
S̄ = {t ∈ T : there is an s ∈ S such that mkts >0
J(s, t) = {e ∈ {0, . . . , M − 1}d :
for infinitely many k}
the type of (σ(w))e is t}
where mkts = (Mk )ts . d
where w ∈ AZ is such that the type of w0d is
s. Define D00 = ∅, and let Di0 , D0j and Dij for
Lemma 4. Let S be a subset of T . Then the fol-
1 ≤ i, j ≤ r be defined as follows:
lowing holds.
(1) For all s ∈ S̄, there is a t ∈ S̄ such that mst > 0. Di0 = ∅
(2) If s ∈ S̄ and t ∈ T are such that t → s, then D0j = {x ∈ Zd : the type of (σ(u))x is sj }
t ∈ S̄.
Dij = J(si , sj ) .
Proof.
Since by Lemma 5 and Theorem 1,
(1) If s ∈ S̄, then there is an s0 ∈ S such that [
mkss0 > 0 for infinitely many k. Hence there is ∅ 6= K(S) = K(S̄) = K(U )
U ∈U (S̄)
a t ∈ T such that mst > 0 and mk−1 ts0 > 0 for
infinitely many k, which implies that t ∈ S̄. we have that U(S̄) 6= ∅. Since by Lemma 4, Part
(2) If s ∈ S̄, then there is an s0 ∈ S such that (ii) S̄ ≥ = S̄, it follows that the starting word u con-
S
mkss0 > 0 for infinitely many k. If t → s, tains a letter of a type in S̄. Hence rj=0 D0j is non-
then there is an l such that mlts > 0. Hence, empty by S Lemma 4, Part (i). Since 0̄ ∈ /SS, we have
ts0 > 0 for infinitely many k. Hence, t ∈ S̄.
ml+k 0̄ ∈
/ S̄, so rj=0 D0j is finite. The sets rj=0 Dij are
 also non-empty for i = 1, . . . , r, again by Lemma 4,
Part (i). Denote the constructed M -recurrent IFS
Lemma 5. Let S be a subset of T not containing (M, (Dij )0≤i, j≤r ) by I(S).
type 0̄. Then (Kn (S̄))n≥0 converges to a limit set
K(S̄). Moreover, if (Kn (S))n≥0 converges to a limit Theorem 5. Let S be a subset of T with 0̄ ∈
/ S such
set K(S), then K(S) = K(S̄). that the sequence (Kn (S))n≥0 converges to a non-
empty limit set K(S). Let I(S) be the M -recurrent
Proof. By Lemma 4, Part (ii), it follows that IFS constructed in Construction 2 and denote its
S̄ = S̄ ≥ . Hence by Proposition 1, the sequence attractor by (C0 , . . . , Cr ). Then
(Kn (S̄))n≥0 converges. Assume that (Kn (S))n≥0
converges Sto a limit set K(S). By Theorem 1, K(S) = C0 .
K(S) = U ∈U (S) K(U ). We claim that U(S) = Let Sj = {sj } for 1 ≤ j ≤ r be the singleton
S
U(S̄). If U ∈ U(S̄), then U is also an element of subsets of S̄ = {s1 , . . . , sr }. Then S̄ = rj=1 Sj and
U(S), since S̄ ≥ = S̄ is obviously contained in S ≥ . S
Kn (S̄) = rj=1 Kn (Sj ) for n = 0, 1, . . . .
On the other hand, let U ∈ U(S) be a non-trivial
communicating class and let s ∈ U . Then mkss > 0 Lemma 6. Let n ≥ 0 and 1 ≤ j ≤ r. Then
for infinitely many k. Since s ∈ S ≥ , there is an l ≥ 0
[
r
and there is a t ∈ S such that mlst > 0. Therefore Kn+1 (Sj ) = (Kn (Si ) + M −(n+1) Dij ) .
st > 0 for infinitely many k, and so s ∈ S̄. Since
ml+k i=1
86 F. M. Dekking & P. van der Wal
S
Proof. To prove that ri=1 (Kn (Si ) + M −(n+1) Dij ) • Assume that for all 1 ≤ j ≤ r, we have C (n) (0) =
is contained in Kn+1 (Sj ), let M −(n+1) x be an ele- ∅ and C (n) (j) = Kn (Sj ). Then
ment of Kn (Si ) + M −(n+1) Dij for some 1 ≤ i ≤ r.
Write [
r
C (n+1) (0) = (C (n) (i) + M −(n+1) Di0 ) = ∅
x = M y + e with y ∈ M Kn (Si ) and e ∈ Dij .
n i=0

So e ∈ {0, . . . , M − 1}d and if w ∈ AZ is such

d
and if we fix 1 ≤ j ≤ r
that the type of w0d is si , then the type of (σ(w))e
is sj . Since y ∈ M n Kn (Si ), we have that the [
r
C (n+1) (j) = (C (n) (i) + M −(n+1) Dij )
type of (σ n (u))y is si and therefore the type of i=0
(σ n+1 (u))M y+e is sj . Since x = M y + e, it follows
[
r
that M −(n+1) x ∈ Kn+1 (Sj ). S = (Kn (Si ) + M −(n+1) Dij )
To prove that Kn+1 (Sj ) is contained in ri=1 i=1
(Kn (Si )+M −(n+1) Dij ), let M −(n+1) x be an element
= Kn+1 (Sj )
of Kn+1 (Sj ). Let f = x mod M and z = M 1
(x − f ),
i.e.
where the 2nd and the 3rd equality follow from
x = Mz + f with z ∈ Zd the induction hypothesis, and the 4th from
Lemma 6. 
and f ∈ {0, . . . , M − 1}d .
It follows from Lemma 4, Part (ii) that the type of
(σ n (u))z is si for some 1 ≤ i ≤ r. This implies that
f ∈ Dij . Hence 8. THE BOUNDARY OF AN
M-RECURRENT IFS
M −(n+1) x = M −n z + M −(n+1) f ATTRACTOR IS AN
[
r M-RECURRENT IFS
∈ (Kn (Si ) + M −(n+1) Dij ) . ATTRACTOR
i=1
Consider a d-dimensional M -recurrent IFS I =
Proof of Theorem 5. We will actually prove that (M, (Dij )1≤i, j≤r ) with attractor (C1 , . . . , Cr ). Fix
Kn (S̄) = for all n ≥ 1, where C (n) = C0
C (n)
(n) an i0 ∈ {1, . . . , r} and write C for Ci0 . In
is the nth approximation of C0 . Combined with this section, we will construct another M -recurrent
Lemma 5 this yields the statement of the theorem. IFS J with attractor (B0 , . . . , Bl ) such that B0 is
S the boundary of C. We will also determine the
Recall that C (n) = rj=0 C (n) (j) (by Lemma 1)
S Hausdorff dimension of C and its boundary.
and that Kn (S̄) = rj=1 Kn (Sj ). We will prove
Let B be the BCA we obtain from I by Construc-
by induction that for all n ≥ 1 C (n) (0) = ∅ and tion 1. Then the alphabet A of B is the set of all
C (n) (j) = Kn (Sj ) for all 1 ≤ j ≤ r.
subsets of {1, . . . , r} and the designated element is
• We have ∅. Denoting the set of types by T , define
[
r
C (1) (0) = (C (0) (i) + M −1 Di0 ) S = {t ∈ T : t 6= ¯
∅}
i=0
and
= C (0) (0) + M −1 D00 = ∅
and for 1 ≤ j ≤ r ∂S = {t ∈ T : t → ¯
∅, t 6= ¯
∅} .
[
r
C (1)
(j) = (C (0) (i) + M −1 Dij ) Define J to be the M -recurrent IFS I(∂S), obtained
i=0 from the BCA B and the set ∂S by Construction 2.

= C (0) (0) + M −1 D0j Theorem 6. Denote the attractor of J by

−1 (B0 , . . . , Bl ). Then
=M {x ∈ Z : the type of (σ(u))x is sj }
d

= K1 (Sj ) . ∂C = B0 .
 The Boundary of the Attractor of a Recurrent Iterated Function System 87

Proof. By Theorem 4, C = K(S) and by The- 9. EXAMPLES

orem 3, ∂K(S) = K(∂S). Since K(∂S) is non-
empty, K(∂S) = B0 by Theorem 5, and hence the
theorem follows.  dimensional two-recurrent IFS having small sets
Recall that λS is the maximum over the Perron-
Frobenius eigenvalues of the communicating classes
in U(S).
Theorem 7. We have
log λS log λ∂S
dimH C = and dimH ∂C =
log M log M
Proof. Since C = K(S) by Theorem 4, and ∂C =
∂K(S) = K(∂S) by Theorem 3, the statement of
the theorem follows directly from Theorem 2. 
We remark that we have determined the dimen-
sions of the sets without requiring the open set con-
dition. However, it is not hard to see that our class
of M -recurrent IFS’s satisfies the weak separation
property from Lau and Ngai.9,10 See Rao and Wen
(1998)11 for other work on overlapping IFS’s.
Example 1. In this example, we present a two-
Dij , which enables us to easily follow the evolution
of the approximating sets during the first five steps.
Let the two-recurrent IFS be defined by
D11 = {(1, 0)}, D12 = {(−1, 0)}
D22 = {(0, 1)}, D21 = {(0, −1)} .
.
Let (C1 , C2 ) be the attractor, i.e. the vector
satisfying
2C1 = (C1 + (1, 0)) ∪ (C2 + (−1, 0))
2C2 = (C1 + (0, −1)) ∪ (C2 + (0, 1)) .
We choose i0 = 1, i.e. C = C1 . See Fig. 3 for C (n) (1)
and C (n) (2), for n = 0, . . . , 5.
Example 2. In this example, we consider a
two-dimensional, two-recurrent IFS such that the

(1) (5) (10)

Fig. 3 From top left to bottom right, the sets C1 , . . . , C1 and C1 approximating the first component C1 of the attractor
(1) (5)
generated by the two-recurrent IFS in Example 1. The points of the sets C1 (1), . . . , C1 (1) are marked by · and the points
(1) (5)
of the sets C1 (2), . . . , C1 (2) are marked by ×.
88 F. M. Dekking & P. van der Wal

attractor sets do not tile R2 , in particular the open and

set condition is not satisfied. Let the two-recurrent
IFS be defined by r = 2 and ∂S = {t ∈ T : t → ∅5×5 , t 6= ∅5×5 }

D11 = {(0, 0)} then by Theorem 7

D12 = {(−1, −1), (−1, 0), (0, 1), (1, 0)} log λ
dimH ∂C1 = dimH K(∂S) =
D22 = {(0, 0)} log 2

D21 = {(−1, 0), (0, −1), (1, 0), (1, 1)} . where λ = max(λU : U ∈ U(∂S)).
Since Card(T ) = 425 , we will first project the set
Let (C1 , C2 ) denote its attractor. In Fig. 4, the first of types on the smaller set T̃ = A2×2 , which consists
eight approximating sets for C1 are shown. We will of only 256 elements. Let π be the projection
calculate the dimension of the boundary of C1 . By
means of Construction 1, we obtain a BCA with π : T → T̃
t(−2,2) ... t(2,2)
A = {∅, {1}, {2}, {1, 2}}, M = 2, N =1 .. .. t(0,1) t(1,1)
. . 7→
2 t(0,0) t(1,0) .
and the starting word u ∈ AZ is such that u(0,0) = t(−2,−2) ··· t(2,−2)
{1} and ux = ∅ for x 6= (0, 0). Hence R = d M
MN
−1 e =
2 and T = A5×5 . Let M = (mst )s, t∈T denote the offspring matrix
We will denote ¯∅, the type in T with all entries and fix s̃, t̃ ∈ T̃ . Then it can be checked that
equal to ∅, by ∅5×5 . If X
mst
S = {t ∈ T : t 6= ∅5×5 } t:π(t)=t̃

(0) (5)
Fig. 4 From top left to bottom right, the sets C1 , . . . , C1 approximating the first component C1 of the attractor generated
by the two-recurrent IFS in Example 2.
 The Boundary of the Attractor of a Recurrent Iterated Function System 89
( )
does not depend on s for all s ∈ T with π(s) = s̃. {1, 2} {1, 2}
Ũ4 =
Define a matrix M̃ = (m̃s̃t̃ )s̃, t̃∈T̃ by {1, 2} {1}
X
m̃s̃t̃ = mst Ũ5 = Ṽ ≤ \(Ũ1 ∪ Ũ2 ∪ Ũ3 ∪ Ũ4 ) .
t:π(t)=t̃

where s ∈ T is such that π(s) = s̃. Define a set We find that U(∂ S̃) = {Ũ5 } and λ = λ̃ = λŨ5 =
Z ⊆ ∂S by 3.0491 . . . . Hence
Z = {t ∈ T : t → ∅5×5 , π(t) 6= ∅2×2 }
log λ
where ∅2×2 is short for dimH ∂C1 = = 1.6084 . . . .
log 2
∅ ∅
∈ A2×2 .
∅ ∅
Analogously to Lemma 2, one can prove that ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
K(Z) = K(∂S). Hence λ = max(λU : U ∈ U(Z)).
Let We thank the referees for their remarks which have
S̃ = {t̃ ∈ T̃ : t̃ 6= ∅ 2×2
} led to several improvements in this paper.

and
∂ S̃ = {t̃ ∈ T̃ : t̃ → ∅2×2 , t̃ 6= ∅2×2 }
then since s → t for some s, t ∈ T implies π(s) →
π(t), we have that ∂ S̃ = π(Z).
We claim that λ̃ = λ. To see this, let s ∈ T
be a type such that U (s), the communicating class
containing s, is an element of U(Z). Let λπ(U (s)) be
the Perron-Frobenius eigenvalue of M̃ restricted to
π(U (s)). Then by a lemma of Furstenberg, λU (s) =
λπ(U (s)) . Since π(U (s)) ⊆ U (π(s)) ∈ U(∂ S̃), we
have
λU (s) = λπ(U (s)) ≤ λU (π(s))
and hence λ ≤ λ̃. If we consider a non-trivial com-
municating class Ũ ∈ U(∂ S̃), then we can find a
communicating class U ∈ U(Z) such that π(U ) =
Ũ . Again by Furstenberg’s Lemma, λŨ = λU and
hence λ̃ ≤ λ. We may conclude that λ̃ = λ.
The reduced set of types T̃ has only 256 states.
Constructing and analyzing M̃ with a computer
package yields the following. Let V ⊆ T denote
the set of types appearing in the starting word
u and define Ṽ = π(V ). The set Ṽ ≤ contains
110 elements and five non-trivial aperiodic classes
Ũ1 , . . . , Ũ5 , where
( )
∅ ∅
Ũ1 =
∅ ∅
( )
{1, 2} {1, 2}
Ũ2 =
{1, 2} {1, 2}
( )
{2} {1, 2}
Ũ3 =
{1, 2} {1, 2}
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