Thurston maps and asymptotic upper curvature (Q2349874)

A branched covering of \(f:S^2\to S^2\) is called a Thurston map if the number of postcritical points of \(f\) is finite. Thurston maps are one of the most important topics in the field of holomorphic dynamics, such as the work of Thurston in 1982, and \textit{A. Douady} and \textit{J. H. Hubbard} [Acta Math. 171, No. 2, 263--297 (1993; Zbl 0806.30027)]. In this paper, the author focuses a family of Thurston maps, namely extending Thurston maps. For any Thurston map, there exists an invariant Jordan curve \(C\subset S^2\) containing the postcritical points. The two components of the complement of this Jordan curve in the sphere are two topological disks. If there is a metric \(d\), such that the supremum of the diameters of all connected components of these two components tends to \(0\), the map is called an extending Thurston map. The paper proves the following theorems: For an extending Thurston map, a graph can be constructed and this graph equipped with the path metric is a Gromov hyperbolic space. Moreover, the boundary of the graph can be identified with \(S^2\). Under this identification, a metric \(d\) is a visual metric on \(S^2\) if and only if \(d\) is a visual metric on the boundary of the graph. For any extending Thurston map \(f\), the asymptotic upper curvature of \(f\) is greater or equal to \(\frac{1}{4}\log^2(\deg f)\). If the map has no periodic critical points, then the asymptotic upper curvature is obtained if and only if the map \(f\) is topologically conjugate to a Lattes map. Note that this theorem provides a counterpart to \textit{U. Hamenstädt}'s entropy rigidity theorem [Ann. Math. (2) 131, No. 1, 35--51 (1990; Zbl 0699.53049)] under the \textit{D. Sullivan} dictionary [Ann. Math. (2) 122, 401--418 (1985; Zbl 0589.30022)].