Lattès maps and combinatorial expansion (Q2813951)

A Lattès map \(f: \widehat{\mathbb{C}}\to \widehat{\mathbb{C}}\) is a rational map that is obtained from a finite quotient of a conformal torus endomorphism. Many different characterizations of Lattès maps are given and conjectured. A branched covering of \(f: S^2\to S^2\) is called a Thurston map if the cardinality of the postcritical points of \(f\) is finite. Thurston map is one of the most important topics in the field of holomorphic dynamics, such as the work of Thursday in 1982, and Douady and Hubbard.NEWLINENEWLINEIn this paper, the author characterizes Lattès maps in terms of combinatorial expansion and proves the following theorem.NEWLINENEWLINEA map \(f: S^2\to S^2\) is topologically conjugate to a Lattès map if and only if \(f\) is an expanding Thurston map with no periodic critical points and satisfies a combinatorial expansion condition.