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These notes study the dynamics of iterated holomorphic mappings from a Riemann surface to itself, concentrating on the classical case of rational maps of the Riemann sphere. They are based on introductory lectures given at Stony Brook during the Fall Term of 1989-90. These lectures are intended to introduce the reader to some key ideas in the field, and to form a basis for further study. The reader is assumed to be familiar with the rudiments of complex variable theory and of two-dimensional differential geometry.
The paper is concerned with the dynamics of an entire transcendental function whose inverse has only finitely many singularities. It is proven that there are no escaping orbits on the Fatou set. Under some extra assumptions the set of escaping orbits has zero Lebesgue measure. If a function depends analytically on parameters then a periodic point as a function of parameters has only algebraic singularities. This yields the Structural Stability Theorem.
Let f be a two dimensional area preserving twist map. For each irrational rotation number in a certain (non trivial) interval, there is an f-invariant minimal set which preserves order with respect to that rotation number. For large nonlinearity these sets are, typically, Cantor sets and they are referred to as Aubry Mather sets. We prove that under csome assumptions these sets are ordered vertically according to ascending rotation number ("Monotonicity"). Furthermore, if f statisfies certain conditions, the right hand points of the gaps in an irrational Cantor set lie on a single orbit ("Single Gap") and diffusion through these Aubry Mather sets can be understood as a limit of resonance overlaps (Convergence of Turnstiles). These conditions essentially establish the existence of a hyperbolic structure and limit the number of homoclinic minimizing orbits. Some other results along similar lines are given, such as the continuity at irrational rotation numbers of the Lyapunov exponent on Aubry Mather sets.
In this paper we sum up our results on one-dimensional measurable dynamics reducing them to the S-unimodal case (compare Appendix 2). Let f be an S-unimodal map of the interval having no limit cycles. Then f is ergodic with repect to the Lebesque measure, and has a unique attractor A in the sense of Milnor. This attractor coincides with the conservative kernel of f. There are no strongly wandering sets of positive measure. If f has a finite a.c.i. (absolutely continuous invariant) measure u, then it has positive entropy. This result is closely related to the following: the measure of Feigenbaum-like attractors is equal to zero. Some extra topological properties of Cantor attractors are studied.
A list of unsolved problems was given at the Conformal Dynamics Conference which was held at SUNY Stony Brook in November 1989. Problems were contributed by Ben Bielefeld, Adrien Douady, Curt McMullen, Jack Milnor, Misuhiro Shishikura, Folkert Tangerman, and Peter Veerman.