  For a Borel measure on the unit interval and a sequence of scales that tend
to zero, we define a one-parameter family of zeta functions called multifractal
zeta functions. These functions are a first attempt to associate a zeta
function to certain multifractal measures. However, we primarily show that they
associate a new zeta function, the topological zeta function, to a fractal
string in order to take into account the topology of its fractal boundary. This
expands upon the geometric information garnered by the traditional geometric
zeta function of a fractal string in the theory of complex dimensions. In
particular, one can distinguish between a fractal string whose boundary is the
classical Cantor set, and one whose boundary has a single limit point but has
the same sequence of lengths as the complement of the Cantor set. Later work
will address related, but somewhat different, approaches to multifractals
themselves, via zeta functions, partly motivated by the present paper.
