506 research outputs found
Entropy in Dimension One
This paper completely classifies which numbers arise as the topological
entropy associated to postcritically finite self-maps of the unit interval.
Specifically, a positive real number h is the topological entropy of a
postcritically finite self-map of the unit interval if and only if exp(h) is an
algebraic integer that is at least as large as the absolute value of any of the
conjugates of exp(h); that is, if exp(h) is a weak Perron number. The
postcritically finite map may be chosen to be a polynomial all of whose
critical points are in the interval (0,1). This paper also proves that the weak
Perron numbers are precisely the numbers that arise as exp(h), where h is the
topological entropy associated to ergodic train track representatives of outer
automorphisms of a free group.Comment: 38 pages, 15 figures. This paper was completed by the author before
his death, and was uploaded by Dylan Thurston. A version including endnotes
by John Milnor will appear in the proceedings of the Banff conference on
Frontiers in Complex Dynamic
On computing Belyi maps
We survey methods to compute three-point branched covers of the projective
line, also known as Belyi maps. These methods include a direct approach,
involving the solution of a system of polynomial equations, as well as complex
analytic methods, modular forms methods, and p-adic methods. Along the way, we
pose several questions and provide numerous examples.Comment: 57 pages, 3 figures, extensive bibliography; English and French
abstract; revised according to referee's suggestion
The Galois Complexity of Graph Drawing: Why Numerical Solutions are Ubiquitous for Force-Directed, Spectral, and Circle Packing Drawings
Many well-known graph drawing techniques, including force directed drawings,
spectral graph layouts, multidimensional scaling, and circle packings, have
algebraic formulations. However, practical methods for producing such drawings
ubiquitously use iterative numerical approximations rather than constructing
and then solving algebraic expressions representing their exact solutions. To
explain this phenomenon, we use Galois theory to show that many variants of
these problems have solutions that cannot be expressed by nested radicals or
nested roots of low-degree polynomials. Hence, such solutions cannot be
computed exactly even in extended computational models that include such
operations.Comment: Graph Drawing 201
Computability for the absolute Galois group of
The absolute Galois group Gal of the
field of rational numbers can be presented as a highly computable
object, under the notion of type-2 Turing computation. We formalize such a
presentation and use it to address several effectiveness questions about
Gal: the difficulty of computing Skolem
functions for this group, the arithmetical complexity of various definable
subsets of the group, and the extent to which countable subgroups defined by
complexity (such as the group of all computable automorphisms of the algebraic
closure ) may be elementary subgroups of the overall
group
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