Julia set Created 2026-09-28 Updated 2026-11-05
For a rational map of degree of a rational map of the Riemann sphere at least two, the Julia set is
the points where the iterations of a map fail to form a normal family on every neighbourhood. It is nonempty, closed, a completely invariant set of a rational map, and perfect. The repelling periodic points are dense in the Julia set.
For , the Julia set is the unit circle. Every neighbourhood of a point on that circle meets points whose iterations of a map tend to zero and points whose iterations of a map tend to infinity. These two incompatible local limits prevent normality there. The circle separates the two Fatou components.
A Julia set need not enclose a nonempty interior region: the Chebyshev polynomial Julia set is an interval, and other rational maps have a Julia set equal to the whole Riemann sphere. For a polynomial function, distinguish the Julia set from the filled Julia set, which includes every nonescaping point and has the Julia set as its boundary.[ref]
Take the degree- Chebyshev polynomial , characterized by
Its Julia set is the interval . The complement is connected, and it is exactly the basin of infinity. Hence has exactly one Fatou component. This is the Chebyshev polynomial Julia set example.