Definition for sets

Definition. Let ${\displaystyle M\subset \mathbb {R} ^{n}}$ be a set that is measurable with respect to m-dimensional Hausdorff measure ${\displaystyle {\mathcal {H}}^{m}}$, and such that the restriction measure ${\displaystyle {\mathcal {H}}^{m}\llcorner M}$ is a Radon measure. We say that an m-dimensional subspace ${\displaystyle P\subset \mathbb {R} ^{n}}$ is the approximate tangent space to ${\displaystyle M}$ at a certain point ${\displaystyle x}$, denoted ${\displaystyle T_{x}M=P}$, if

${\displaystyle \left({\mathcal {H}}^{m}\llcorner M\right)_{x,\lambda }\rightharpoonup {\mathcal {H}}^{m}\llcorner P}$ as ${\displaystyle \lambda \downarrow 0}$

in the sense of Radon measures. Here for any measure ${\displaystyle \mu }$ we denote by ${\displaystyle \mu _{x,\lambda }}$ the rescaled and translated measure:

${\displaystyle \mu _{x,\lambda }(A):=\lambda ^{-n}\mu (x+\lambda A),\qquad A\subset \mathbb {R} ^{n}}$

Certainly any classical tangent space to a smooth submanifold is an approximate tangent space, but the converse is not necessarily true.

Multiplicities

The parabola

${\displaystyle M_{1}:=\{(x,x^{2}):x\in \mathbb {R} \}\subset \mathbb {R} ^{2}}$

is a smooth 1-dimensional submanifold. Its tangent space at the origin ${\displaystyle (0,0)\in M_{1}}$ is the horizontal line ${\displaystyle T_{(0,0)}M_{1}=\mathbb {R} \times \{0\}}$. On the other hand, if we incorporate the reflection along the x-axis:

${\displaystyle M_{2}:=\{(x,x^{2}):x\in \mathbb {R} \}\cup \{(x,-x^{2}):x\in \mathbb {R} \}\subset \mathbb {R} ^{2}}$

then ${\displaystyle M_{2}}$ is no longer a smooth 1-dimensional submanifold, and there is no classical tangent space at the origin. On the other hand, by zooming in at the origin the set ${\displaystyle M_{2}}$ is approximately equal to two straight lines that overlap in the limit. It would be reasonable to say it has an approximate tangent space ${\displaystyle \mathbb {R} \times \{0\}}$ with multiplicity two.

Definition for measures

One can generalize the previous definition and proceed to define approximate tangent spaces for certain Radon measures, allowing for multiplicities as explained in the section above.

Definition. Let ${\displaystyle \mu }$ be a Radon measure on ${\displaystyle \mathbb {R} ^{n}}$. We say that an m-dimensional subspace ${\displaystyle P\subset \mathbb {R} ^{n}}$ is the approximate tangent space to ${\displaystyle \mu }$ at a point ${\displaystyle x}$ with multiplicity ${\displaystyle \theta (x)\in (0,\infty )}$, denoted ${\displaystyle T_{x}\mu =P}$ with multiplicity ${\displaystyle \theta (x)}$, if

${\displaystyle \mu _{x,\lambda }\rightharpoonup \theta (x)\;{\mathcal {H}}^{m}\llcorner P}$ as ${\displaystyle \lambda \downarrow 0}$

in the sense of Radon measures. The right-hand side is a constant multiple of m-dimensional Hausdorff measure restricted to ${\displaystyle P}$.

This definition generalizes the one for sets as one can see by taking ${\displaystyle \mu$ :={\mathcal {H}}^{n}\llcorner M} for any ${\displaystyle M}$ as in that section. It also accounts for the reflected paraboloid example above because for ${\displaystyle \mu$ :={\mathcal {H}}^{1}\llcorner M_{2}} we have ${\displaystyle T_{(0,0)}\mu =\mathbb {R} \times \{0\}}$ with multiplicity two.