On the Geometric Densities of Random Closed Sets

Abstract

In many applications it is of great importance to handle evolution equations about random closed sets of different (even though integer) Hausdorff dimensions, including local information about initial conditions and growth parameters. Following a standard approach in geometric measure theory such sets may be described in terms of suitable measures. For a random closed set of lower dimension with respect to the environment space, the relevant measures induced by its realizations are singular with respect to the Lebesgue measure, and so their usual Radon–Nikodym derivatives are zero almost everywhere. In this paper we suggest to cope with these difficulties by introducing random generalized densities (distributions) á la Dirac–Schwarz, for both the deterministic case and the stochastic case. In this last one we analyze mean generalized densities, and relate them to densities of the expected values of the relevant measures. Many models of interest in material science and in biomedicine are based on time dependent random closed sets, as the ones describing the evolution of (possibly space and time inhomogeneous) growth processes; in such a situation, the Delta formalism provides a natural framework for deriving evolution equations for mean densities at all (integer) Hausdorff dimensions, in terms of the local relevant kinetic parameters of birth and growth. In this context connections with the concepts of hazard function, and spherical contact distribution function are offered.