Distances in Sierpiński graphs and on the Sierpiński gasket

Abstract

The well known planar fractal called the Sierpiński gasket can be defined with the help of a related sequence of graphs {G _n } _{n ≥ 0}, where G _n is the n-th Sierpiński graph, embedded in the Euclidean plane. In the present paper we prove geometric criteria that allow us to decide, whether a shortest path between two distinct vertices x and y in G _n , that lie in two neighbouring elementary triangles (of the same level), goes through the common vertex of the triangles or through two distinct vertices (both distinct from the common vertex) of those triangles. We also show criteria for the analogous problem on the planar Sierpiński gasket and in the 3-dimensional Euclidean space.