  In this paper we study the connection between the analytic capacity of a set
and the size of its orthogonal projections. More precisely, we prove that if
$E\subset \mathbb C$ is compact and $\mu$ is a Borel measure supported on $E$,
then the analytic capacity of $E$ satisfies $$ \gamma(E) \geq
c\,\frac{\mu(E)^2}{\int_I \|P_\theta\mu\|_2^2\,d\theta}, $$ where $c$ is some
positive constant, $I\subset [0,\pi)$ is an arbitrary interval, and
$P_\theta\mu$ is the image measure of $\mu$ by $P_\theta$, the orthogonal
projection onto the line $\{re^{i\theta}:r\in\mathbb R\}$. This result is
related to an old conjecture of Vitushkin about the relationship between the
Favard length and analytic capacity. We also prove a generalization of the
above inequality to higher dimensions which involves related capacities
associated with signed Riesz kernels.
