Newton's method on Bring-Jerrard polynomials (Q482163)

The authors study some topological properties of the parameter plane of Newton's method of the family of polynomials of the form \(P_{n,c}(z) = P_c(z) = z^n-cz+1\), where \(n \geq 3\) and \(c \in \mathbb{C}\). The reason for considering this family is that for \(n=5\) the general quintic may be reduced to \(P_{5,c}\) by a nonlinear algebraic transformation. The corresponding Newton's function is given by \[ N_c(z) = z-\frac{P_c(z)}{P_c'(z)} = z-\frac{z^n-cz+1}{nz^{n-1}-c} = \frac{(n-1)z^n-1}{nz^{n-1}-c}\,. \] If \(\alpha_j(c)=\alpha_j\), \(j=0,1,\dotsc,n-1\), denote the roots of \(P_c\) and if \(N_c^k\) denotes the \(k\)-th iterate of \(N_c\), then the \textit{basin of attraction} of \(\alpha_j\) is defined by \[ \mathcal{A}_c(\alpha_j) = \{\, z \in \mathbb{C} : N_c^k(z) \to \alpha_j \text{ as } k\to\infty \,\}\,. \] It is an open set and, in general, it may have infinitely many connected components. The component which contains \(\alpha_j\) is called the \textit{immediate basin of attraction} and is denoted by \(\mathcal{A}_c^*(\alpha_j)\). The function \(N_c\) has \(n\) fixed critical points (corresponding to \(\alpha_0,\alpha_1,\dotsc,\alpha_{n-1}\)) and one free critical point at \(0\) of multiplicity \(n-2\). For \(j=0,1,\dotsc,n-1\) and \(k \in \mathbb{N}\) let \[ \mathcal{C}_j^0 = \{\, c \in \mathbb{C} : 0 \in \mathcal{A}_c^*(\alpha_j) \,\} \] and \[ \mathcal{C}_j^k = \{\, c \in \mathbb{C} : N_c^k(0) \in \mathcal{A}_c^*(\alpha_j) \text{ and } N_c^{k-1}(0) \notin \mathcal{A}_c^*(\alpha_j) \,\}\,. \] Then the authors prove that \(\mathcal{C}_0^0\) is connected, simply connected and unbounded, \(\mathcal{C}_j^0\) is empty for \(j=1,\dotsc,n-1\), \(\mathcal{C}_j^1\) is empty for \(j=0,1,\dotsc,n-1\) and \(\mathcal{C}_j^k\) are simply connected as long as they are nonempty for \(j=0,1,\dotsc,n-1\) and \(k \geq 2\). Finally, the authors consider real parameters \(c\) and analyze the bifurcation structure.