Speaker: 

Bianca Thompson

Institution: 

Harvey Mudd

Time: 

Thursday, January 25, 2018 - 3:00pm to 4:00pm

Location: 

RH 340P

The study of discrete dynamical systems boomed in the age of computing. The Mandelbrot set, created by iterating 0 in the function z^2+c  and allowing c to vary, gives us a wealth of questions to explore. We can ask about the number of rational preperiodic points (points whose iterates end in a cycle) for z^2+c. Can this number be uniform as we allow c to vary? It turns out this is a hard question to answer. Instead we will explore places where this question can be answered; twists of rational functions.