Repeated compositions of analytic maps (Q1848427)

This beautiful paper considers a problem which arises in complex dynamical systems and in the theory of continued fractions. Suppose \(\{f_n\}\) is a sequence of Möbius maps each of which maps the unit disc \(D\) into itself, and for each \(j\) let \(r_j\) be the hyperbolic radius of the disc \(f_j(D)\) (possibly \(r_n=+\infty\)). If the sum \(\sum^\infty_{n=1} e^{-r_n}\) diverges, then the sequence of composite functions \(\{f_1\circ f_2\circ\cdots\circ f_n\}\) converges uniformly on \(D\) to a constant. The result is shown to be best possible in a sense and to go beyond related Euclidean results as in \textit{L. Lorentzen} [Theorem 1.4A, Lect. Notes Pure Appl. Math. 154, 281--304 (1994; Zbl 0801.30004)]. The result and its proof are valid in higher dimensions. The latter part of the paper considers the problem when the images \(\{f_n(D)\}\) accumulate on the boundary of \(D\). The proofs throughout the paper rely on the interaction between hyperbolic geometry in two and three dimensions. The work in the latter part of the paper depends on the notion of angular derivatives. One section of the paper gives a rather complete, yet simple, development of angular derivatives in the context of hyperbolic geometry, which should be of independent interest.