Fourier integral operators, fractal sets and the regular value theorem

We prove that if ${\mathcal E} \subset {\Bbb R}^{2d}$, $d \ge 2$, is an Ahlfors-David regular product set of sufficiently large Hausdorff dimension, denoted by $dim_{{\mathcal H}}({\mathcal E})$, and $\phi$ is a sufficiently regular function, then the upper Minkowski dimension of the set $$\{w \in {\mathcal E}: \phi_l(w)=t_l; 1 \leq l \leq m \}$$ does not exceed $dim_{{\mathcal H}}({\mathcal E})-m$, in line with the regular value theorem from the elementary differential geometry. Our arguments are based on the mapping properties of the underlying Fourier Integral Operators and are intimately connected with the Falconer distance conjecture in geometric measure theory. We shall see that our results are in general sharp in the sense that if the Hausdorff dimension is smaller than a certain threshold, then the dimensional inequality fails in a quantifiable way. The constructions used to demonstrate this are based on the distribution of lattice points on convex surfaces and have connections with combinatorial geometry.