Smooth projections of self-similar measures

We prove a Furstenberg-type criterion for a given orthogonal projection of a self-similar measure to be absolutely continuous, with quantified regularity. It requires exponential mixing of the rotational part at a rate that is sufficiently fast compared with an orbit relative analogue of its dimension. Using Ramanujan sets of irrational rotations in $\mathrm{SO}(3)$ constructed by Lubotzky, Phillips and Sarnak (1986, 1987), we obtain explicit applications. In particular, we exhibit singular self-similar measures whose every line projection is absolutely continuous, measures of arbitrarily small Fourier dimension with smooth projections in all but a fully explicit exceptional set of directions, and a non-trivial example of a self-similar measure that is Salem with a $C^2 _0$ density.