New Properties and Sets Derived from the 2-Ball Fractal Dust

Abstract

Due to their practicality and convenient parametrization, fractals derived from iterated function systems (IFSs) constitute powerful tools widely used to model natural and synthetic shapes. An IFS can generate sets other than fractals, extending its application field. Some of such sets arise from IFS fractals by adding minimal modifications to their defining rule. In this work, we propose two modifications to a fractal recently introduced by the authors: the so-called 2-ball fractal dust, which consists of a set of balls diminishing in size along an iterative process and delimited by an enclosing square. The proposed modifications are (a) adding a resizer parameter to introduce an interaction between the generator and generated ball elements and (b) a new fractal embedded into the 2-ball fractal dust, having the characteristic of filling zones not covered by the previous one. We study some numerical properties of both modified resulting sets to gain insights into their general properties. The resulting sets are geometrical forms with potential applications. Notably, the first modification generates an algorithm capable of producing geometric structures similar to those in mandalas and succulent plants; the second modification produces shapes similar to those found in nature, such as bubbles, sponges, and soil. Then, although a direct application of our findings is beyond the scope of this research, we discuss some clues of possible uses and extensions among which we can remark two connections: the first one between the parametrization we propose and the mandala patterns, and the second one between the embedded fractal and the grain size distribution of rocks, which is useful in percolation modeling.