Poincaré functions with spiders' webs (Q2845745)

The escaping set \(I(f)\) of an entire function \(f\) consists of the points which tend to \(\infty\) under iteration. It plays an important role in complex dynamics.NEWLINENEWLINEThe authors study the structure of this set for Poincaré functions of polynomials. These are defined as follows: Let \(p\) be a polynomial and let \(z_0\) be a repelling fixed point of \(p\), that is, \(p(z_0)=z_0\) and \(\lambda = p'(z_0)\) satisfies \(|\lambda|>1\). By results of Kœnigs and Poincaré there exists an entire function \(f\), called the Poincaré function, which satisfies \(f(\lambda z)=p(f(z))\). A spider's web is a connected subset \(E\) of the complex plane for which there exists an exhaustion of the plane by an increasing sequence \((G_n)\) of simply-connected domains such that \(\partial G_n\subseteq E\) for all \(n\). Spiders' webs were introduced by \textit{P. J. Rippon} and \textit{G. M. Stallard} [Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 133, No. 4, 1119--1126 (2005; Zbl 1058.37033)] to complex dynamics.NEWLINENEWLINEA corollary of the main result says that if all critical points of \(p\) tend to \(\infty\) under iteration, then \(I(f)\) is a spider's web for all Poincaré functions \(f\) of \(p\). The same conclusion also holds for the fast escaping set \(A(f)\) which, informally speaking, consists of all points tending to \(\infty\) under iteration as fast as compatible with the growth of \(f\). Moreover, it holds for the so-called levels \(A_R(f)\) of \(A(f)\).NEWLINENEWLINEThe main result of the paper says that \(A_R(f)\) is a spider's web if and only if the component of the Julia set containing \(z_0\) consists only of the point \(z_0\).