Tight frames and geometric properties of wavelet sets

A construction for providing single dyadic orthonormal wavelets in Euclidean space ℝ^d is given. It is called the general neighborhood mapping construction. The fact that one wavelet is sufficient to generate an orthonormal basis for L²(ℝ^d) is the critical issue. The validity of the construction is proved, and the construction is implemented computationally to provide a host of examples illustrating various geometrical properties of such wavelets in the spectral domain. Because of the inherent complexity of these single orthonormal wavelets, the method is applied to the construction of single dyadic tight frame wavelets, and these tight frame wavelets can be surprisingly simple in nature. The structure of the spectral domains of the wavelets arising from the general neighborhood mapping construction raises a basic geometrical question. There is also the question of whether or not the general neighborhood mapping construction gives rise to all single dyadic orthonormal wavelets. Results are proved giving partial answers to both of these questions. Dedicated to Charles A. Micchelli for his 60th birthday Mathematics subject classification (2000) 42C40. John J. Benedetto: Both authors gratefully acknowledge support from ONR Grant N000140210398. The first named author also gratefully acknowledges support from NSF DMS Grant 0139759.