Fractals and the monadic second order theory of one successor

Abstract

We show that if $X$ is virtually any classical fractal subset of $\mathbb{R}^n$, then $(\mathbb{R},<,+,X)$ interprets the monadic second order theory of $(\mathbb{N},+1)$.
This result is sharp in the sense that the standard model of the monadic second order theory of $(\mathbb{N},+1)$ is known to interpret $(\mathbb{R},<,+,X)$ for various classical fractals $X$ including the middle-thirds Cantor set and the Sierpinski carpet.
Let $X \subseteq \mathbb{R}^n$ be closed and nonempty.
We show that if the $C^k$-smooth points of $X$ are not dense in $X$ for some $k \geq 1$, then $(\mathbb{R},<,+,X)$ interprets the monadic second order theory of $(\mathbb{N},+1)$.
The same conclusion holds if the packing dimension of $X$ is strictly greater than the topological dimension of $X$ and $X$ has no affine points.