Related papers: Expansion properties for finite subdivision rules …

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.…

Thurston maps are branched self-coverings of the sphere whose critical points have finite forward orbits. We give combinatorial and algebraic characterizations of Thurston maps that are isotopic to expanding maps as "Levy-free" maps and as…

We describe a circle of ideas relating the dynamics of 2-dimensional homeomorphisms to that of 1-dimensional endomorphisms. This is used to introduce a new class of maps generalizing that of Thurston's pseudo-Anosov homeomorphisms.

A Thurston map is a branched covering map $f\colon S^2\to S^2$ that is postcritically finite. Mating of polynomials, introduced by Douady and Hubbard, is a method to geometrically combine the Julia sets of two polynomials (and their…

We prove that every sufficiently large iterate of a Thurston map which is not doubly covered by a torus endomorphism and which does not have a Levy cycle is isotopic to the subdivision map of a finite subdivision rule. We determine which…

Let $f: S^2 \to S^2$ be a postcritically finite branched covering map without periodic branch points. We give necessary and sufficient algebraic conditions for $f$ to be homotopic, relative to its postcritical set, to an expanding map $g$.

In the early 1980's Thurston gave a topological characterization of rational maps whose critical points have finite iterated orbits (\cite{Th,DH1}): given a topological branched covering $F$ of the two sphere with finite critical orbits, if…

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…

This is the announcement, and the long summary, of a series of articles on the algorithmic study of Thurston maps. We describe branched coverings of the sphere in terms of group-theoretical objects called bisets, and develop a theory of…

We consider Thurston maps, i.e., branched covering maps $f\colon S^2\to S^2$ that are postcritically finite. In addition, we assume that $f$ is expanding in a suitable sense. It is shown that each sufficiently high iterate $F=f^n$ of $f$ is…

Let $f$ be a postcritically finite branched self-cover of a 2-dimensional topological sphere. Such a map induces an analytic self-map $\sigma_f$ of a finite-dimensional Teichm\"uller space. We prove that this map extends continuously to the…

We investigate the combinatorial and dynamical properties of so-called nearly Euclidean Thurston maps, or NET maps. These maps are perturbations of many-to-one folding maps of an affine two-sphere to itself. The close relationship between…

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 introduce and study tame homeomorphisms of surfaces of infinite type. These are maps for which curves under iterations do not accumulate onto geodesic laminations with non-proper leaves, but rather just a union of possibly intersecting…

We prove the existence of continuous boundary extensions (Cannon-Thurston maps) for the inclusion of a vertex space into a tree of (strongly) relatively hyperbolic spaces satisfying the qi-embedded condition. This implies the same result…

In 1980s, Thurston established a topological characterization theorem for postcritically finite rational maps. In this paper, a decomposition theorem for a class of postcritically infinite branched covering termed `Herman map' is developed.…

A Thurston map is a branched covering map from $\S^2$ to $\S^2$ with a finite postcritical set. We associate a natural Gromov hyperbolic graph $\G=\G(f,\mathcal C)$ with an expanding Thurston map $f$ and a Jordan curve $\mathcal C$ on…

The dynamical classification of rational maps is a central concern of holomorphic dynamics. Much progress has been made, especially on the classification of polynomials and some approachable one-parameter families of rational maps; the goal…

We find explicit subdivision rules for all special cubulated groups. A subdivision rule for a group produces a sequence of tilings on a sphere which encode all quasi-isometric information for a group. We show how these tilings detect…

In this paper we introduce and investigate the notions of diagrams and discrete extensions in the study of finitary $2$-representations of finitary $2$-categories.