arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Lex Oversteegen.
According to a recent paper \cite{bopt13}, polynomials from the closure $\bar{\rm PHD}_3$ of the {\em Principal Hyperbolic Domain} ${\rm PHD}_3$ of the cubic connectedness locus have a few specific properties. The family $\mathrm{CU}$ of all polynomials with these properties is called the \emph{Main Cubioid}. In this paper we describe the set $\mathrm{CU}^c$ of laminations which can be associated to polynomials from $\mathrm{CU}$.
A small perturbation of a quadratic polynomial with a non-repelling fixed point gives a polynomial with an attracting fixed point and a Jordan curve Julia set, on which the perturbed polynomial acts like angle doubling. However, there are cubic polynomials with a non-repelling fixed point, for which no perturbation results into a polynomial with Jordan curve Julia set. Motivated by the study of the closure of the Cubic Principal Hyperbolic Domain, we describe such polynomials in terms of their quadratic-like restrictions.
Let $P$ be a polynomial of degree $d$ with Julia set $J_P$. Let $\widetilde N$ be the number of non-repelling cycles of $P$. By the famous Fatou-Shishikura inequality $\widetilde N\le d-1$. The goal of the paper is to improve this bound. The new count includes \emph{wandering collections of non-precritical branch continua}, i.e., collections of continua or points $Q_i\subset J_P$ \emph{all} of whose images are pairwise disjoint, contain no critical points, and contain the limit sets of $\mathrm{eval}(Q_i)\ge 3$ external rays. Also, we relate individual cycles, which are either non-repelling or repelling with no periodic rays landing, to individual critical points that are recurrent in a weak sense. A weak version of the inequality reads \[ \widetilde N+N_{irr}+χ+\sum_i (\mathrm{eval}(Q_i)-2) \le d-1 \] where $N_{irr}$ counts repelling cycles with no periodic rays landing at points in the cycle, $\{Q_i\}$ form a wandering collection $\mathcal{B}_\mathbb{C}$ of non-precritical branch continua, $χ=1$ if $\mathcal{B}_\mathbb{C}$ is non-empty, and $χ=0$ otherwise.
A model for the Mandelbrot set is due to Thurston and is stated in the language of geodesic laminations. The conjecture that the Mandelbrot set is actually homeomorphic to this model is equivalent to the celebrated MLC conjecture stating that the Mandelbrot set is locally connected. For parameter spaces of higher degree polynomials, even conjectural models are missing, one possible reason being that the higher degree analog of the MLC conjecture is known to be false. We provide a combinatorial model for an essential part of the parameter space of complex cubic polynomials, namely, for the space of all cubic polynomials with connected Julia sets all of whose cycles are repelling (we call such polynomials \emph{dendritic}). The description of the model turns out to be very similar to that of Thurston.
We discuss different analogs of the main cardioid in the parameter space of cubic polynomials, and establish relationships between them.
A compactum $X\subset \C$ is unshielded if it coincides with the boundary of the unbounded component of $\C\sm X$. Call a compactum $X$ finitely Suslinian if every collection of pairwise disjoint subcontinua of $X$ whose diameters are bounded away from zero is finite. We show that any unshielded planar compactum $X$ admits a topologically unique monotone map $m_X:X \to X_{FS}$ onto a finitely Suslinian quotient such that any monotone map of $X$ onto a finitely Suslinian quotient factors through $m_X$. We call the pair $(X_{FS},m_X)$ (or, more loosely, $X_{FS}$) the finest finitely Suslinian model of $X$. If $f:\C\to \C$ is a branched covering map and $X \subset \C$ is a fully invariant compactum, then the appropriate extension $M_X$ of $m_X$ monotonically semiconjugates $f$ to a branched covering map $g:\C\to \C$ which serves as a model for $f$. If $f$ is a polynomial and $J_f$ is its Julia set, we show that $m_X$ (or $M_X$) can be defined on each component $Z$ of $J_f$ individually as the finest monotone map of $Z$ onto a locally connected continuum.
Thurston introduced $\si_d$-invariant laminations (where $\si_d(z)$ coincides with $z^d:\ucirc\to \ucirc$, $d\ge 2$). He defined \emph{wandering $k$-gons} as sets $\T\subset \ucirc$ such that $\si_d^n(\T)$ consists of $k\ge 3$ distinct points for all $n\ge 0$ and the convex hulls of all the sets $\si_d^n(\T)$ in the plane are pairwise disjoint. Thurston proved that $\si_2$ has no wandering $k$-gons and posed the problem of their existence for $\si_d$,\, $d\ge 3$. Call a lamination with wandering $k$-gons a \emph{WT-lamination}. Denote the set of cubic critical portraits by $\A_3$. A critical portrait, compatible with a WT-lamination, is called a \emph{WT-critical portrait}; let $\WT_3$ be the set of all of them. It was recently shown by the authors that cubic WT-laminations exist and cubic WT-critical portraits, defining polynomials with \emph{condense} orbits of vertices of order three in their dendritic Julia sets, are dense and locally uncountable in $\A_3$ ($D\subset X$ is \emph{condense in $X$} if $D$ intersects every subcontinuum of $X$). Here we show that $\WT_3$ is a dense first category subset of $\A_3$. We also show that (a) critical portraits, whose laminations have a condense orbit in the topological Julia set, form a residual subset of $\A_3$, (b) the existence of a condense orbit in the Julia set $J$ implies that $J$ is locally connected.
We define the (dynamical) core of a topological polynomial (and the associated lamination). This notion extends that of the core of a unimodal interval map. Two explicit descriptions of the core are given: one related to periodic objects and one related to critical objects. We describe all laminations associated with quadratic and cubic topological polynomials with a simple core (in the quadratic case, these correspond precisely to points on the Main Cardioid of the Mandelbrot set).
If $f:[a,b]\to \mathbb{R}$, with $a<b$, is continuous and such that $a$ and $b$ are mapped in opposite directions by $f$, then $f$ has a fixed point in $I$. Suppose that $f:\mathbb{C}\to\mathbb{C}$ is map and $X$ is a continuum. We extend the above for certain continuous maps of dendrites $X\to D, X\subset D$ and for positively oriented maps $f:X\to \mathbb{C}, X\subset \mathbb{C}$ with the continuum $X$ not necessarily invariant. Then we show that in certain cases a holomorphic map $f:\mathbb{C}\to\mathbb{C}$ must have a fixed point $a$ in a continuum $X$ so that either $a\in \mathrm{Int}(X)$ or $f$ exhibits rotation at $a$.