Rational iteration: complex analytic dynamical systems (Q2366525)

The theory of rational iteration has its origin in memoires of P. Fatou and G. Julia, about 1918-20. Fatou and Julia, independently discovered the dichotomy of the Riemann sphere into the sets now bearing their names, by considering the sequence of iterates of an arbitrary nonlinear rational function. This book gives a self-contained exposition of the theory of Fatou and Julia and of more recent developments which yields a complete description of the dynamics of a given iteration sequence \((f^ n)\), that is, of the complex analytic dynamical system \((f,\widehat C)\): Sullivan's no-wandering-domains theorem, the classification of periodic domains due to Fatou and Cremer, the theorems of Siegel and Arnol'd concerning the existence of rotation domains and Shishikura's precise bound for the number of periodic cycles. The performance of such an exposition is obtained by using as the only prerequisites a good knowledge of analytic function theory (the author refers to the book of \textit{L. V. Ahlfors} Complex analysis, 3rd ed. (1979; Zbl 0395.30001)) and some results of general interest which are discussed in the first chapter (proper mappings, the Riemann-Hurwitz formula, the Poincaré metric, the capacity and Green's function). In the second chapter the author presents the basic results of Fatou and Julia concerning global properties of Fatou sets \(({\mathcal F})\) and Julia sets \(({\mathcal J})\). Sullivan's Theorem and the Classification Theorem due to Fatou and Cremer are discussed in the first part of Chapter 3, the major part of which is devoted to a detailed study of the dynamics \((f^ n|_{{\mathcal F}})\) and, in particular, to a description of the most important components of a Fatou set: Böttcher domains, Schröder domains, Leau domains and Leau flowers, Siegel discs and Arnol'd-Herman rings, each of which is intimately connected with a certain functional equation. The aim of Chapter 4 is to prove the theorems of Siegel and Arnol'd related to the existence of rotation domains under fairly weak hypotheses. A more precise study of Julia sets of rational functions and dynamics of \((f^ n|_{\mathcal J})\) is given in chapter 5. To a certain extent smooth Julia sets, locally connected Julia sets and totally disconnected Julia sets, are discussed and several results concerning the boundaries of periodic components are also proved. So, it turns out that the dynamical behaviour is almost completely governed by the dynamics of the critical set. In the final chapter the work of Douady and Hubbard on the Mandelbrot set and on external ray of polynomials and Lyubich's construction of an invariant probability measure, which is the appropriate generalization to rational functions of the equilibrium of the Julia set of a polynomial, are presented. As an application, the author derives a lower bound for the Hausdorff dimension of a Julia set. Also, the problem of stability of Julia sets and some inverse problems concerning permutable rational functions and Julia sets are considered. The didactic value of the book is completed by a list of exercises which accompanies each section and by the figures created by Turbo Pascal programs which serve to illustrate various theorems and phenomena. It is also important the author's following specification from the preface: ``many of the results appear for the first time in book form, and indeed some seem to have never been published before. This applies also, as far as I am aware, to some of the proofs of known results''.