Fractal Asymptotics

Recent advances in the periodic orbit theory of stochastically perturbed systems have permitted a calculation of the escape rate of a noisy chaotic map to order 64 in the noise strength. Comparison with the usual asymptotic expansions obtained from integrals and with a previous calculation of the electrostatic potential of exactly selfsimilar fractal charge distributions, suggests a remarkably accurate form for the late terms in the expansion, with parameters determined independently from the fractal repeller and the critical point of the map. Two methods give a precise meaning to the asymptotic expansion, Borel summation and Shafer approximants. These can then be compared to the escape rate as computed by alternative methods.