Related papers: Expansion properties for finite subdivision rules …

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…

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 post-critically finite branched covering of the sphere that is a subdivision map of a finite subdivision rule, we define non-expanding spines which determine the existence of a Levy cycle in a non-exhaustive semi-decidable algorithm.…

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…

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 $g$.

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…

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 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.…

In the second paper [LZ24b] of this series, we obtained an analog of the prime number theorem for a class of branched covering maps on the $2$-sphere $S^2$ called expanding Thurston maps, which are topological models of some non-uniformly…

Expanding Thurston maps were introduced by M. Bonk and D. Meyer with motivation from complex dynamics and Cannon's conjecture from geometric group theory via Sullivan's dictionary. In this paper, we show that the entropy map of an expanding…

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 study canonical decompositions of postcritically finite branched coverings of the 2-sphere, as defined by K.~Pilgrim. We show that every hyperbolic cycle in the decomposition does not have a Thurston obstruction. It is thus Thurston…

A long-standing conjecture asserts that any Anosov diffeomorphism of a closed manifold is finitely covered by a diffeomorphism which is topologically conjugate to a hyperbolic automorphism of a nilpotent manifold. In this paper, we show…

In this paper, we prove that an expanding Thurston map $f\colon S^2 \rightarrow S^2$ is asymptotically $h$-expansive if and only if it has no periodic critical points, and that no expanding Thurston map is $h$-expansive. As a consequence,…

We study canonical decompositions of postcritically finite branched coverings of the 2-sphere, as defined by K. Pilgrim. We show that every hyperbolic cycle in the decomposition does not have a Thurston obstruction. It is thus Thurston…

We obtain an analog of the prime number theorem for a class of branched covering maps on the $2$-sphere $S^2$ called expanding Thurston maps, which are topological models of some non-uniformly expanding rational maps without any smoothness…

We prove that every mapping torus of any free group endomorphism is residually finite. We show how to use a not yet published result of E. Hrushovski to extend our result to arbitrary linear groups. The proof uses algebraic self-maps of…

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…

We demonstrate that the question whether or not a given postcritically finite topological ramified covering map of the 2-sphere is Thurston equivalent to a rational map is algorithmically decidable.

Every expanding Thurston map $f$ without periodic critical points is known to have an iterate $f^n$ which is the topological mating of two polynomials. This has been examined by Kameyama and Meyer; the latter who has offered an explicit…