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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…
Topological mating is an combination that takes two same-degree polynomials and produces a new map with dynamics inherited from this initial pair. This process frequently yields a map that is Thurston-equivalent to a rational map $F$ on the…
When is a topological branched self-cover of the sphere equivalent to a rational map on CP^1? William Thurston gave one answer in 1982, giving a negative criterion (an obstruction to a map being rational). We give a complementary, positive…
Using Thurston's characterization of postcritically finite rational functions as branched coverings of the sphere to itself, we give a new method of constructing new conformal dynamical systems out of old ones. Let $f(z)$ be a rational map…
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…
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…
In 1980's, Thurston established a combinatorial characterization for post-critically finite rational maps. This criterion was then extended by Cui, Jiang, and Sullivan to sub-hyperbolic rational maps. The goal of this paper is to present a…
This research report outlines work, partially joint with Jeremy Kahn and Kevin Pilgrim, which gives parallel theories of elastic graphs and conformal surfaces with boundary. One one hand, this lets us tell when one rubber band network is…
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.
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…
The behavior under iteration of the critical points of polynomial maps plays an essential role in understanding its dynamics. We study the special case where the forward orbits of the critical points are finite. Thurston's theorem tells us…
William Thurston (1946-2012) gave a combinatorial characterization for generic branched self-coverings of the two-sphere by associating a planar graph to them 10.48550/arXiv.1502.04760. By generalizing the notion of local balancing, the…
Thurston obtained a combinatorial characterization for generic branched self-coverings that preserve the orientation of the oriented 2-sphere by associating a planar graph to them [arXiv:1502.04760]. In this work, the Thurston result is…
We study rational self-maps of $\mathbb{P}^{1}$ whose critical points all have finite forward orbit. Thurston's rigidity theorem states that outside a single well-understood family, there are finitely many such maps over $\mathbb{C}$ of…
Mating is an operation to construct a rational map f from two polynomials, which are not in conjugate limbs of the Mandelbrot set. When the Thurston Algorithm for the unmodified formal mating is iterated in the case of postcritical…
We use the theory of self-similar groups to enumerate all combinatorial classes of non-exceptional quadratic Thurston maps with fewer than five postcritical points. The enumeration relies on our computation that the corresponding maps on…
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 suggest a way to associate to a rational map of the Riemann sphere a three dimensional object called a hyperbolic orbifold 3-lamination. The relation of this object to the map is analogous to the relation of a hyperbolic 3-manifold to a…
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…
Renormalizations can be considered as building blocks of complex dynamical systems. This phenomenon has been widely studied for iterations of polynomials of one complex variable. Concerning non-polynomial hyperbolic rational maps, a recent…