Dynamic rays of bounded-type entire functions (Q640739)

The escaping set \(I(f)\) of an entire function \(f\) consists of all points which tend to infinity under iteration of \(f\). \textit{A. E. Eremenko} asked whether every component of \(I(f)\) is bounded, or, even stronger, every point in \(I(f)\) can be joined to \(\infty\) by a curve in \(I(f)\) [``On the iteration of entire functions'', in: Dynamical systems and ergodic theory, 28th Sem. St. Banach Int. Math. Cent., Warsaw/Pol. 1986, Banach Cent. Publ. 23, 339--345 (1989; Zbl 0692.30021)]. It is shown in this paper that the strong form of Eremenko's conjecture fails. The examples constructed have the additional property that they lie in the Eremenko-Lyubich class \(B\) consisting of all functions for which the set of singularities of the inverse is bounded. By a result of Eremenko and Lyubich, \(I(f)\) is a subset of the Julia set \(J(f)\) for \(f\in B\). It is shown that there exists \(f\in B\) such that all path-connected components of \(J(f)\) are bounded. In fact, it is even sketched how one can obtain a function \(f\in B\) such that \(J(f)\) contains no non-trivial curves at all. Moreover, \(f\) can be taken to be hyperbolic. In the opposite direction it is shown that if \(f\in B\) has finite order of growth, then every point in \(I(f)\) can be joined to \(\infty\) by a curve \(\gamma\) in \(I(f)\). Even stronger, the iterates of \(f\) converge to \(\infty\) uniformly on \(\gamma\).