Special Colloquium-Shapes of polynomial Julia sets

Title: Shapes of polynomial Julia sets 

Speaker:  Kathryn Lindsey, University of Chicago

Date and Time: Friday, February 10,  2:15-3:15pm

Place: Rome 351

Abstract: The filled Julia set of a complex polynomial P is the set of points whose orbit under iteration of the map P is bounded. W. Thurston asked “What are the possible shapes of polynomial Julia sets?” For example, is there a polynomial whose Julia set looks like a cat, or your silhouette, or spells out your name? It turns out the answer to all of these is “yes.” I will characterize the shapes of polynomial Julia sets and present an algorithm for constructing polynomials whose Julia sets have desired shapes.