Related papers: Thurston's pullback map on the augmented Teichm\"u…

Under some mild assumptions, an orientation-preserving branched covering map of marked $2$-spheres induces a pullback map between the corresponding Teichm\"uller spaces. By analyzing the associated pushforward operator acting on integrable…

We investigate the family of marked Thurston maps that are defined everywhere on the topological sphere $S^2$, potentially excluding at most countable closed set of essential singularities. We show that when an unmarked Thurston map $f$ is…

We consider rational maps $f$ on the Riemann sphere $\widehat {\mathbb{C}}$ with an $f$-invariant set $P\subset \widehat {\mathbb{C}}$ of four marked points containing the postcritical set of $f$. We show that the dynamics of the…

Let f: P^1 \to P^1 be a rational map with finite postcritical set P_f. Thurston showed that f induces a holomorphic map \sigma_f of the Teichmueller space T modelled on P_f to itself fixing the basepoint corresponding to the identity map…

We develop the theory of Thurston maps that are defined everywhere on the topological sphere $S^2$ with a possible exception of a single essential singularity. We establish an analog of the celebrated W. Thurston's characterization theorem…

Associated to a Thurston map $f: S^2 \to S^2$ with postcritical set $P$ are several different invariants obtained via pullback: a relation on the set of free homotopy classes of curves in $S^2- P$, a linear operator on the free $\R$-module…

We develop techniques that lay out a basis for generalizations of the famous Thurston's Topological Characterization of Rational Functions for an infinite set of marked points and branched coverings of infinite degree. Analogously to the…

If $p : Y \to X$ is an unramified covering map between two compact oriented surfaces of genus at least two, then it is proved that the embedding map, corresponding to $p$, from the Teichm\"uller space ${\cal T}(X)$, for $X$, to ${\cal…

Thurston obtained a classification of individual surface homeomorphisms via the dynamics of the corresponding mapping class elements on Teichm\"uller space. In this paper we present certain extended versions of this, first, to random…

We study the dynamics of Thurston maps under iteration. These are branched covering maps $f$ of 2-spheres $S^2$ with a finite set $\mathop{post}(f)$ of postcritical points. We also assume that the maps are expanding in a suitable sense.…

While there may be many Thurston metric geodesics between a pair of points in Teichm\"uller space, we find that by imposing an additional energy minimization constraint on the geodesics, thought of as limits of harmonic map rays, we select…

We show that Thurston's skinning maps of Teichmuller space have finite fibers. The proof centers around a study of two subvarieties of the SL_2(C) character variety of a surface, one associated to complex projective structures and the other…

Let $f:(\mathbb{P}^1,P)\to(\mathbb{P}^1,P)$ be a postcritically finite rational map with postcritical set $P$. William Thurston showed that $f$ induces a holomorphic pullback map $\sigma_f:\mathcal{T}_P\to\mathcal{T}_P$ on the Teichm\"uller…

Among Thurston maps (orientation-preserving, postcritically finite branched coverings of the 2-sphere to itself), those that arise as subdivision maps of a finite subdivision rule form a special family. For such maps, we investigate…

For a compact surface $X_0$, Thurston introduced a compactification of its Teichm\"uller space $\mathcal T(X_0)$ by completing it with a boundary $\mathcal{PML}(X_0)$ consisting of projective measured geodesic laminations. We introduce a…

We prove that every postsingularly finite entire map $g$ can be approximated by a sequence of postcritically finite complex polynomials $(g_n)$ such that their postsingular dynamics $g|P_g$ and $g_n|P_{g_n}$ are conjugate for every $n \in…

We describe an application of tropical moduli spaces to complex dynamics. A post-critically finite branched covering $\varphi$ of $S^2$ induces a pullback map on the Teichm\"uller space of complex structures of $S^2$; this descends to an…

Let $f: S^2 \to S^2$ be an expanding branched covering map of the sphere to itself with finite postcritical set $P_f$. Associated to $f$ is a canonical quasisymmetry class $\GGG(f)$ of Ahlfors regular metrics on the sphere in which the…

A Thurston map $f\colon (S^2, A) \to (S^2, A)$ with marking set $A$ induces a pullback relation on isotopy classes of Jordan curves in $(S^2, A)$. If every curve lands in a finite list of possible curve classes after iterating this pullback…

Let $X$ be an infinite geodesically complete hyperbolic surface which can be decomposed into geodesic pairs of pants. We introduce Thurston's boundary to the Teichm\"uller space $T(X)$ of the surface $X$ using the length spectrum analogous…