> Is there an authoritative definition of a fractal?
Sort of. I believe Mandelbrot's original definition required only that the Hausdorff dimension exceeds the topological dimension. And that kinda-sorta includes Hilbert curves, if you count them as topologically 1-dimensional.
But I've seen other definitions, including a rather hazy one that was not a definition in the formal sense, but just talked about properties that certain interesting sets tend to have: self-similarity, etc.
In any case, I have yet to find a situation in which the formal definition of "fractal" actually mattered significantly. (If someone knows of one, I'd be interested.)
Sort of. I believe Mandelbrot's original definition required only that the Hausdorff dimension exceeds the topological dimension. And that kinda-sorta includes Hilbert curves, if you count them as topologically 1-dimensional.
But I've seen other definitions, including a rather hazy one that was not a definition in the formal sense, but just talked about properties that certain interesting sets tend to have: self-similarity, etc.
In any case, I have yet to find a situation in which the formal definition of "fractal" actually mattered significantly. (If someone knows of one, I'd be interested.)