Locally connected models for Julia sets (Q616896)

The article is about locally connected models of non locally connected Julia sets. It also includes an interesting purely topological discussion of locally connected models of general continua embedded in the plane. External rays are a powerful tool to study the dynamics and the topology of a Julia set \(J\) of a polynomial \(P\), especially if \(J\) is connected. It works better if \(J\) is locally connected. In that case, external rays converging to the same point can be used to define a pinched circle model of \(J\) which is homeomorphic to \(J\), and they serve as a dynamical model, too: the pinching is compatible with the dynamics of the circle map \(z\mapsto z^d\) and gives rise to a semiconjugacy with \(P\). However, there are Julia sets which are connected but not locally connected. In a lot of cases, Jan Kiwi showed that external rays can still be used to define a model with a dynamical system on it which is not homeomorphic to \(J\) anymore but is a metrizable topological quotient of \(J\). Moreover, it is locally connected, and the map from \(J\) to its quotient is still compatible with the dynamics: it is a semiconjugacy. Kiwi also has a more general construction that covers non-connected Julia sets. However, he always has to assume that there is no irrationally neutral periodic point (called CS-points). This article presents a different construction that only deals with connected Julia sets but allows for the presence of CS-points. To describe the purely topological part of their construction we need to introduce a bit of terminology. A planar continuum is a non-empty compact connected subset of the plane. A (general) continuum is a non-empty compact connected metrizable topological space. It is non-degenerate when it has more than one point. A continuous map between topological spaces is called monotone when the pre-images of points are connected. Impressions of non-degenerate planar continua have a complex-analytic definition but also a purely topological one. Since this terminology and these definitions are quite standard, we will skip them here. Now consider a non-degenerate planar continuum \(Q\) and make the supplementary assumption that \(Q\) has no inside part, i.e., it is equal to the boundary of the unbounded component of its complement (it is then called unshielded). This is always the case for Julia sets of polynomials when they are connected. Using Moore's theorem and simple topological arguments, the authors prove that \(Q\) has a finest monontone locally connected image, and that it is planar. More, and more precisely, they prove that there exists a monotone continuous, not necessarily injective, map \(m\) from the plane to itself with the following two properties: \(m\) sends \(Q\) to a locally connected planar continuum; for all monotone continuous surjective maps \(h\) from \(Q\) to a locally connected topological space \(Y\), \(h\) factors through \(m\) as \(h|_Q=\varphi \circ m|_Q\) for some continuous \(\varphi\). This finest model \(m(Q)\) is unique up to homeomorphism. Moreover, they prove that it is homeomorphic to the quotient of \(Q\) by the closed equivalence relation generated by impressions. So a monotone continuous image of \(Q\) is locally connected if and only if it contracts impressions to points. The authors then prove that for polynomials \(P\) with connected Julia sets \(J\), the constructed finest model \(m(J)\) of \(Q=J\) is dynamical, i.e., the map \(m\) semiconjugates \(P\) to some map which is a topological polynomial, i.e., a ramified cover. Last they give a characterization of those polynomials for which \(m(J)\) is a single point, as well as a sufficient condition for it not to be, which applies, for instance, when \(J\) has a non-preperiodic non-precritical biaccessible point.