Every Thurston map $f\colon S^2\rightarrow S^2$ on a $2$-sphere $S^2$ induces a pull-back operation on Jordan curves $\alpha \subset S^2\smallsetminus {P_f}$, where ${P_f}$ is the postcritical set of f. Here the isotopy class $[f^{-1}(\alpha )]$ (relative to ${P_f}$) only depends on the isotopy class $[\alpha ]$. We study this operation for Thurston maps with four postcritical points. In this case, a Thurston obstruction for the map f can be seen as a fixed point of the pull-back operation. We show that if a Thurston map f with a hyperbolic orbifold and four postcritical points has a Thurston obstruction, then one can ‘blow up’ suitable arcs in the underlying $2$-sphere and construct a new Thurston map $\widehat f$ for which this obstruction is eliminated. We prove that no other obstruction arises and so $\widehat f$ is realized by a rational map. In particular, this allows for the combinatorial construction of a large class of rational Thurston maps with four postcritical points. We also study the dynamics of the pull-back operation under iteration. We exhibit a subclass of our rational Thurston maps with four postcritical points for which we can give positive answer to the global curve attractor problem.

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. Especially when a finite subdivision rule has polynomial growth of edge subdivisions, the algorithm terminates very quickly, and the existence of a Levy cycle is equivalent to the existence of a Thurston obstruction. To show the equivalence between Levy and Thurston obstructions, we generalize the arcs intersecting obstruction theorem by Pilgrim and Tan [Combining rational maps and controlling obstructions. Ergod. Th. & Dynam. Sys. 18(1) (1998), 221–245] to a graph intersecting obstruction theorem. As a corollary, we prove that for a pair of post-critically finite polynomials, if at least one polynomial has core entropy zero, then their mating has a Levy cycle if and only if the mating has a Thurston obstruction.

We consider graphs consisting of finitely many internal rays for degenerating Newton maps and state a convergence result. As an application, we prove that a hyperbolic component in the moduli space of quartic Newton maps is bounded if and only if every element has degree $2$ on the immediate basin of each root. This provides the first complete description of bounded hyperbolic components in a complex two-dimensional moduli space.

In this article, we establish an explicit correspondence between kissing reflection groups and critically fixed anti-rational maps. The correspondence, which is expressed using simple planar graphs, has several dynamical consequences. As an application of this correspondence, we give complete answers to geometric mating problems for critically fixed anti-rational maps.

This paper is part of a program to understand the parameter spaces of dynamical systems generated by meromorphic functions with finitely many singular values. We give a full description of the parameter space for a specific family based on the exponential function that has precisely two finite asymptotic values and one attracting fixed point. It represents a step beyond the previous work by Goldberg and Keen [The mapping class group of a generic quadratic rational map and automorphisms of the 2-shift. Invent. Math. 101(2) (1990), 335–372] on degree two rational functions with analogous constraints: two critical values and an attracting fixed point. What is interesting and promising for pushing the general program even further is that, despite the presence of the essential singularity, our new functions exhibit a dynamic structure as similar as one could hope to the rational case, and that the philosophy of the techniques used in the rational case could be adapted.

We extend the concept of a Hubbard tree, well established and useful in the theory of polynomial dynamics, to the dynamics of transcendental entire functions. We show that Hubbard trees in the strict traditional sense, as invariant compact trees embedded in $\mathbb {C}$ , do not exist even for post-singularly finite exponential maps; the difficulty lies in the existence of asymptotic values. We therefore introduce the concept of a homotopy Hubbard tree that takes care of these difficulties. Specifically for the family of exponential maps, we show that every post-singularly finite map has a homotopy Hubbard tree that is unique up to homotopy, and that post-singularly finite exponential maps can be classified in terms of homotopy Hubbard trees, using a transcendental analogue of Thurston’s topological characterization theorem of rational maps.

We generalize a combinatorial formula of Douady from the main cardioid to other hyperbolic components H of the Mandelbrot set, constructing an explicit piecewise linear map which sends the set of angles of external rays landing on H to the set of angles of external rays landing on the real axis.

We extend Thurston’s topological characterisation theorem for postcritically finite rational maps to a class of rational maps which have a fixed bounded type Siegel disk. This makes a small step towards generalizing Thurston’s theorem to geometrically infinite rational maps.

Let $X$ be a nonempty set and ${\mathcal{P}}(X)$ the power set of $X$. The aim of this paper is to identify the unital subrings of ${\mathcal{P}}(X)$ and to compute its cardinality when it is finite. It is proved that any topology $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}$ on $X$ such that $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}=\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}^{c}$, where $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}^{c}=\{U^{c}\mid U\in \unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}\}$, is a unital subring of ${\mathcal{P}}(X)$. It is also shown that $X$ is finite if and only if any unital subring of ${\mathcal{P}}(X)$ is a topology $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}$ on $X$ such that $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}=\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}^{c}$ if and only if the set of unital subrings of ${\mathcal{P}}(X)$ is finite. As a consequence, if $X$ is finite with cardinality $n\geq 2$, then the number of unital subrings of ${\mathcal{P}}(X)$ is equal to the $n$th Bell number and the supremum of the lengths of chains of unital subalgebras of ${\mathcal{P}}(X)$ is equal to $n-1$.

By homotopy linear algebra we mean the study of linear functors between slices of the ∞-category of ∞-groupoids, subject to certain finiteness conditions. After some standard definitions and results, we assemble said slices into ∞-categories to model the duality between vector spaces and profinite-dimensional vector spaces, and set up a global notion of homotopy cardinality à la Baez, Hoffnung and Walker compatible with this duality. We needed these results to support our work on incidence algebras and Möbius inversion over ∞-groupoids; we hope that they can also be of independent interest.

The Bishop property (♗), introduced recently by K. P. Hart, T. Kochanek and the first-named author, was motivated by Pełczyński’s classical work on weakly compact operators on $C(K)$-spaces. This property asserts that certain chains of functions in said spaces, with respect to a particular partial ordering, must be countable. There are two versions of (♗): one applies to linear operators on $C(K)$-spaces and the other to the compact Hausdorff spaces themselves. We answer two questions that arose after (♗) was first introduced. We show that if $\mathscr{D}$ is a class of compact spaces that is preserved when taking closed subspaces and Hausdorff quotients, and which contains no nonmetrizable linearly ordered space, then every member of $\mathscr{D}$ has (♗). Examples of such classes include all $K$ for which $C(K)$ is Lindelöf in the topology of pointwise convergence (for instance, all Corson compact spaces) and the class of Gruenhage compact spaces. We also show that the set of operators on a $C(K)$-space satisfying (♗) does not form a right ideal in $\mathscr{B}(C(K))$. Some results regarding local connectedness are also presented.

We describe how polynomials with all cycles repelling and connected Julia set are organized in the boundary of the shift loci according to their real laminations.

The points which converge to $\infty$ under iteration of the maps $z\mapsto\lambda\exp(z)$ for $\lambda \in \mathbb{C} \backslash \{0\}$ are investigated. A complete classification of such ‘escaping points’ is given: they are organized in the form of differentiable curves called rays which are diffeomorphic to open intervals, together with the endpoints of certain (but not all) of these rays. Every escaping point is either on a ray or the endpoint (landing point) of a ray. This answers a special case of a question of Eremenko. The combinatorics of occurring rays, and which of them land at escaping points, are described exactly. It turns out that this answer does not depend on the parameter $\lambda$.

It is also shown that the union of all the rays has Hausdorff dimension 1, while the endpoints alone have Hausdorff dimension 2. This generalizes results of Karpińska for specific choices of $\lambda$.