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A holomorphic periodic point is attracting when its return multiplier has modulus strictly less than one. For the return map $G=R^n$, choose a local coordinate at the fixed point and a number $q$ strictly between $|G^{\prime }(p)|$ and one. Taylor expansion gives $|G(z)-p|\le q|z-p|$ on a sufficiently small disc. It maps that disc into itself, and successive returns converge uniformly to $p$ there. Composing with the finitely many intervening maps gives locally uniform convergence to the periodic orbit and places its basin in the Fatou set.

Two self-maps $R,S:X\to X$ are commuting functions when their function compositions satisfy $R\circ S=S\circ R$. Order then makes no difference: the self-maps $R(x)=x+1$ and $S(x)=x+2$ on the real line both give $x+3$ when applied successively. By contrast, $R(x)=x+1$ and $S(x)=2x$ give $2x+1$ and $2x+2$, so they do not commute.

Mathematical induction gives $R^n\circ S^m=S^m\circ R^n$ for all nonnegative integers $m,n$, where powers mean repeated function composition. Sharing a fixed point or an invariant set is insufficient to imply commutation. For rational maps of the Riemann sphere with degree of a rational map of the Riemann sphere at least two, commutation does imply equality of their Fatou sets and Julia sets, by the commuting rational maps of degree at least two have the same Julia set theorem.

If a closed set $E$ satisfies $f^{-1}(E)=E$ for a rational map of degree at least two, then either $E$ has at most two points and lies in the Fatou set, or $J(f)\subseteq E$. The complement omits every point of $E$, so Montel theorem proves normality when $|E|\ge 3$.

A subset $E$ is completely invariant for a rational map if $R(E)=E=R^{-1}(E)$. This asserts invariance in both directions, including every preimage, rather than just invariance of one chosen inverse branch. For a nonconstant sphere map, the two inclusions $R(E)\subseteq E$ and $R^{-1}(E)\subseteq E$ already imply the equalities, because the map is surjective. The Fatou set and Julia set are completely invariant. A Fatou component need not itself be completely invariant even though the union of all components is.

Complex dynamics studies iterations of a map $z_{n+1}=f(z_n)$ when $f$ is a holomorphic map. A central case is a rational map of the Riemann sphere of degree of a rational map of the Riemann sphere at least two. One asks which orbits approach an attracting periodic point, which escape, and where nearby starting points have unstable long-term behavior.

The polynomial function $f(z)=z^2$ is a complete first example:For $|z|<1$ these iterations of a map tend to zero; for $|z|>1$ they tend to infinity on the Riemann sphere. On the unit circle, writing $z=e^{2\pi it}$ turns the iteration of a map into angle doubling $t\mapsto 2t(\mathrm{mod}1)$. The two open regions make up the Fatou set, where the iterations of a map form a normal family; their shared unit circle is the Julia set.

The quadratic polynomial family $f_c(z)=z^2+c$ illustrates two different questions. For a fixed $c$, its Julia set lives in the dynamical $z$-plane. The Mandelbrot set lives in the parameter $c$-plane and records when the critical orbit starting at zero stays bounded. Varying a parameter and varying an initial point are separate operations.

A Fatou component is a connected component of the Fatou set of a rational map. It is open. A rational map sends each Fatou component onto another one: complete invariance of the Fatou set puts it inside the inverse image of the target component; its maximal connectedness makes it one full inverse-image component. Restricting the globally proper sphere map to such a component is proper, since the inverse image of a compact subset intersected with the component is closed in a compact set. Its image is both open and closed in the connected target component, hence the whole target. A component is periodic if some iterate returns it to itself.

The Fatou set $F(f)$ of a rational map is the set of points having a neighbourhood on which the iterations of a map $\{f^n{\}}_{n\ge 0}$ form a normal family. It is open by definition, and its connected components are the Fatou components. Its complement on the Riemann sphere is the Julia set.

For $f(z)=z^2$, the Fatou set is $\{|z|<1\}\cup \{|z|>1\}\cup \{\infty \}$. The iterations of a map converge locally uniformly to zero inside the unit disc and to infinity outside its closure. Each region is an attracting basin. More generally the Fatou set also contains rotation domains such as a Siegel disc: stability in the normal-family sense does not require convergence to one point.

The Fatou set is a completely invariant set of a rational map, so $f^{-1}(F(f))=F(f)=f(F(f))$. A single Fatou component may instead move to another component under $f$.^[ref]

Holomorphic maps $R$ and $S$ are holomorphically conjugate if a biholomorphic coordinate change $h$ satisfies $h\circ R=S\circ h$. Iterating gives $h\circ R^n=S^n\circ h$, so periodic points and their exact periods correspond. Differentiating at a periodic point gives equality of return multipliers, since the nonzero derivative of $h$ cancels. Locally uniform convergence and normality transfer through the coordinate change, so it also transports Fatou sets and Julia sets. Between entire Riemann spheres the biholomorphic change is a Möbius transformation; an affine change is sufficient for many polynomial normalizations.

Let $f$ be a rational map of degree of a rational map of the Riemann sphere at least two. Its nonempty Julia set $J$ is infinite: a finite completely invariant closed set of a rational map lies in the Fatou set. Since $J$ is compact, its set $J^{\prime }$ of accumulation points is nonempty. It is closed, contained in $J$, and completely invariant; local openness of a nonconstant holomorphic map gives the inverse-image direction.

Apply the completely invariant closed set of a rational map classification to $J^{\prime }$. Its alternative with at most two points would put the nonempty set $J^{\prime }$ in the Fatou set, contradicting $J^{\prime }\subseteq J$. Hence $J\subseteq J^{\prime }$, so $J=J^{\prime }$ and the Julia set has no isolated points. This supplies the perfect property without assuming it in advance.^[ref]

Two rational sphere maps are Möbius conjugate if $S=h\circ R\circ h^{-1}$ for a Möbius transformation $h$. This is precisely global holomorphic conjugacy between Riemann-sphere self-maps. It preserves degree, local degrees of a holomorphic map, exact periods and return periodic-orbit multipliers, and transports the Fatou set and Julia set by $h$. Since a Möbius map and its inverse are Lipschitz on the compact sphere, this last assertion follows directly from equicontinuity of the iterate families. An affine holomorphic conjugacy is the special case where $h$ fixes infinity.

A family $\mathcal{F}$ of meromorphic functions on a domain is a normal family if every sequence from $\mathcal{F}$ has a subsequence converging uniformly on every compact subset, measured in the chordal metric on the Riemann sphere. The limit is a meromorphic function or the constant infinity. For holomorphic functions, a finite limit is holomorphic; a sequence may also tend locally uniformly to infinity.

The constant functions $f_n(z)=n$ form a normal family, because any sequence has either a constant subsequence or a subsequence tending uniformly to infinity in the chordal metric. In contrast $g_n(z)=nz$ is not a normal family on any neighbourhood of zero. Every subsequence tends to infinity at every nonzero point but remains zero at zero; this pointwise pattern cannot be a continuous Riemann sphere valued limit.

For a rational map $f$, the Fatou set is precisely where its iterations of a map form a normal family. Normality asks for convergent subsequences, so it allows stable rotations as well as convergence to an attracting periodic point.^[ref]

A parabolic basin consists of points that eventually enter an attracting direction of a parabolic cycle. For a suitable return iterate, an attracting petal is a forward-invariant open region with the periodic point on its boundary, and the return iterates tend to that point there. The union of its inverse images is an open parabolic basin contained in the Fatou set; the Fatou components meeting the attracting petals form the immediate basin. Its boundary lies in the Julia set.

The parabolic cycle itself and points that land exactly on it belong to the Julia set, so mere pointwise convergence to that cycle is not the definition of the open parabolic basin. For $f(z)=z+z^2$, zero is a fixed point with periodic-orbit multiplier one. Small negative real starting values approach zero without reaching it, whereas zero itself is a Julia set point. The reflected example parabolic disk for z minus z squared gives an explicit forward-invariant region and a quantitative convergence bound.^[ref]

Let $R$ be a nonconstant rational map of the Riemann sphere, and write $R^n$ for its $n$-fold iterate, with $R^0$ the identity. The appropriate notion of convergence is uniform convergence on compact subsets in the chordal metric, which treats poles as ordinary values at infinity. A family of meromorphic maps is a normal family if every sequence in it has a subsequence converging locally uniformly in that metric; the limit is meromorphic or constant, possibly the constant infinity.

The Fatou set $F(R)$ consists of points with a neighborhood on which the iterate family is normal. The complementary Julia set is $J(R)=\hat{\mathbb{C}}\setminus F(R)$. Thus the sphere is the disjoint union of an open stability region $F(R)$ and a closed instability region $J(R)$. These definitions concern all subsequences of iterates, rather than assuming that the iterates themselves converge on every stable region.

Equicontinuity makes this distinction precise. On a compact subset $K$ of a neighborhood, the family is equicontinuous if, for every $ϵ>0$, some $\delta >0$ makes $\chi (R^n(z),R^n(w))<ϵ$ whenever $z,w\in K$ and $\chi (z,w)<\delta$, uniformly in $n$. The Arzelà-Ascoli theorem says that equicontinuity of continuous maps from a compact domain to a compact metric target gives relative compactness for uniform convergence. Apply it to a compact exhaustion and take a diagonal subsequence to obtain local normality. Locally uniform spherical limits of meromorphic maps are again meromorphic or constant, by using finite target charts and the locally uniform limit theorem for holomorphic functions. Conversely, if equicontinuity failed, there would be maps $f_j$ and points $z_j,w_j\to z$ with $\chi (f_j(z_j),f_j(w_j))$ bounded below by a positive number. A subsequence converging uniformly on a compact neighborhood contradicts this. Hence local normality and local equicontinuity are equivalent here.

Both sets are completely invariant:For the inverse direction, if the family is normal near $R(z)$, composition with $R$ makes $R^{n+1}$ normal near $z$, and adding the identity does not affect normality. For the forward direction, suppose the iterates are equicontinuous near $z$. A nonconstant holomorphic sphere map is open. Thus each sufficiently small neighborhood of $z$ maps onto a neighborhood of $R(z)$; every nearby target point $w$ has a preimage $x$ as close to $z$ as desired. Thenis uniformly small. Applying this at each point of the image neighborhood proves equicontinuity there. This argument works at rational critical points and requires no single-valued inverse branch. Surjectivity of $R$ supplies the asserted image equalities. Also $F(R^k)=F(R)$ and $J(R^k)=J(R)$ for $k\ge 1$: one direction follows by taking a subfamily, and the other by splitting $R^n$ into the finitely many residue classes $R^r\circ (R^k{)}^m$, $0\le r<k$.

For degree $d\ge 2$, the Julia set is nonempty. Otherwise the family would be equicontinuous on the whole compact sphere, giving a subsequence $R^{n_j}$ converging uniformly to a continuous sphere map $G$. Maps sufficiently close in chordal distance are homotopic, using the unique short spherical geodesic between their values. They therefore have equal topological degrees. This is impossible because $\mathrm{deg}{R}^{n_j}=d^{n_j}\to \infty$ whereas $G$ has one fixed degree.

It cannot be a nonempty finite set either. Complete invariance would make $R$ a permutation of that finite set, with just one sphere preimage for each of its points. That preimage would have local degree of a holomorphic map $d$. Every holomorphic cycle in this set would consequently be superattracting for its return map, hence lie in $F(R)$, a contradiction. In particular $J(R)$ contains at least three points.

The Montel theorem in the form used here says that a family of meromorphic maps on a domain, each omitting the same three distinct points of the sphere, is normal for spherical convergence. It also shows that $J(R)$ is perfect. If $a$ were isolated in $J(R)$, choose a disc $U$ with $U\cap J(R)=\{a\}$ and four distinct points of $J(R)$. For each $n$, complete invariance makes $R^n(U)\cap J(R)$ have at most the single point $R^n(a)$. Partition the iterates into finitely many families according to which of the four points, if any, that single value equals. Each family omits at least three fixed points, so each is normal by Montel; their finite union is normal. This would put $a$ in $F(R)$, a contradiction. Therefore the degree-at-least-two Julia set is compact, infinite and has no isolated points.

The same omitted-value argument explains its global reach. If an open $U$ meets $J(R)$, then ${\bigcup }_{n\ge 0}{R}^n(U)$ can omit at most two sphere points, since three omissions would imply normality on $U$. If $J(R)$ had an interior and were not the whole sphere, these image sets would remain in $J(R)$ and their complement would contain the nonempty open set $F(R)$, impossible. Thus a proper Julia set has empty interior and equals the boundary of $F(R)$. If the Julia set is the whole sphere, the Fatou set is empty instead.

An attracting periodic point and its holomorphic cycle has a contracting return map in a small disc, so its basin is in the Fatou set. Repelling periodic points belong to the Julia set: return iterates fix the point but have derivatives equal to unbounded powers of their periodic-orbit multiplier, contradicting derivative bounds for a normal subsequence near that fixed value. A standard further global property is that repelling periodic points are dense in the Julia set. Fatou components can also support convergence towards a parabolic cycle on the boundary, or rotation behavior in a Siegel disc or a Herman ring; normality need not mean attraction. For example, $R(z)=z^d$ has $J(R)=\{|z|=1\}$, with the interior converging to zero and the exterior to infinity. On the unit circle, arbitrarily close radii have incompatible limiting behavior, preventing normality there.

Degree one has a different picture. A rational map of degree one is a Möbius transformation. Up to Möbius conjugacy, an elliptic map is $z\mapsto az$ with $|a|=1$; its iterates are rotations and are equicontinuous on the sphere, so $F$ is the whole sphere and $J$ is empty (including the identity). For $z\mapsto az$ with $|a|>1$, all compact subsets away from zero converge to infinity, while $z_n=a^{-n}\to 0$ and $R^n(z_n)=1$ prevent equicontinuity at zero. Thus $J=\{0\}$; for $|a|<1$ the reciprocal coordinate gives $J=\{\infty \}$. A nonidentity parabolic map is conjugate to $z\mapsto z+1$. Its iterates converge locally uniformly to infinity on the finite plane, but $z_n=-n\to \infty$ has $R^n(z_n)=0$, so $J=\{\infty \}$. Holomorphic conjugacy carries these sets to the corresponding fixed points of the original map. These finite Julia sets explain why the degree restriction in many global Julia-set properties is essential.

For $f_c(z)=z^2+c$, the Mandelbrot set is the set of parameters for which the finite critical orbit $0,f_c(0),f_c^2(0),\dots$ remains bounded. It is a compact connected parameter set. Its main cardioid consists of parameters with an attracting fixed point, with a period-two bulb attached on the left, smaller bulbs attached recursively and fine filamentary structure. It is symmetric about the real axis and meets that axis in $[-2,1/4]$. The quadratic filled Julia set is connected exactly when $c$ belongs to this parameter set; outside it, the rational critical point escapes and the Julia set is a Cantor set. Thus it organizes the contrasting phase-space dynamics of the quadratic family, rather than itself being a Julia set in the dynamical $z$-plane.

The affine map $h(z)=1/2-z$, its own inverse, givesThis value is unique even among Möbius conjugacies. The finite fixed point of $P$ is zero and its periodic-orbit multiplier is one. Holomorphic conjugacy preserves that periodic-orbit multiplier. Infinity has periodic-orbit multiplier zero for a quadratic polynomial, so a corresponding multiplier-one fixed point of $w^2+c$ must be finite; it obeys $2w=1$ and $w^2+c=w$, forcing $c=1/4$. To locate it explicitly, a quadratic fixed point of periodic-orbit multiplier $\lambda$ gives $c=\lambda /2-{\lambda }^2/4$. The boundary parametrization $|\lambda |=1$ has its cusp at $\lambda =1$, so $c=1/4$ is the right-hand cusp on the Mandelbrot boundary. It is in the set: the critical orbit starts at zero, stays in $[0,1/2]$ and increases to the fixed point $1/2$. For real $c>1/4$, the increment $f_c(x)-x=(x-1/2{)}^2+c-1/4$ is strictly positive; a bounded critical orbit would have a limit solving $x^2+c=x$, which has no real solution. These nearby real parameters escape, proving that the cusp belongs to the boundary of the full Mandelbrot set as well.

The fixed points of $P$ on the sphere are zero and infinity. There is no neighborhood of zero on which all iterates converge to zero, even pointwise: a negative real initial point satisfies $P(x)=x-x^2<x<0$, so its iterates decrease without a finite limit and escape to infinity. Every neighborhood of zero contains such points. At infinity there is a uniformly attracting neighborhood in the chordal metric. In the reciprocal coordinate $w=1/z$,For $|w|\le 1/4$, its modulus is at most $|w|/3$. Thus the reciprocal iterates tend uniformly to zero there, proving uniform convergence to infinity on the corresponding sphere neighborhood.

For the given disc, $|z-1/2|<1/2$ is equivalent to $|z{|}^2<\Re z$, and hence to $\Re (1/z)>1$. Under $w=1/z$ the iteration becomesIf $\Re w>1$, then $\Re (1/(w-1))>0$, so $\Re T(w)>\Re w+1$. Consequently the half-plane is forward invariant andThis proves uniform convergence to zero on the disc and therefore $\Delta \subset F(P)$. It is the explicit parabolic disk for z minus z squared.

Let $U=F_{\Delta }$. The iterate family is normal on the connected open set $U$. Every subsequential limit along $n_j\to \infty$ equals zero on $\Delta$; by the identity theorem it is zero throughout $U$. If the full sequence failed to converge uniformly on some compact subset, a further normal subsequence would contradict that conclusion. Hence $P^n\to 0$ locally uniformly throughout $U$. Complete invariance of the Fatou set puts $P(U)$ in a Fatou component. Since $P(\Delta )\subset \Delta$, that component is $U$, so $P(U)\subseteq U$.

We prove the reverse-image assertion, rather than assuming that a basin has only one component. Each connected component $V$ of $P^{-1}(U)$ maps properly to $U$: for compact $K\subset U$, the sphere preimage $P^{-1}(K)$ is compact, and its intersection with $V$ is closed in it because $V$ is a relatively closed component of $P^{-1}(U)$. Its image is open by holomorphic openness. To prove it is closed in $U$, lift a convergent sequence of image points to preimages in $V$. Their images eventually lie in a compact neighborhood inside $U$; properness gives a convergent preimage subsequence with limit in $V$ and the desired limiting image. Thus the image is also closed, and equals the connected target $U$. Moreover $U$ itself is one such component: it lies in $P^{-1}(U)$ by forward invariance, and any connected inverse-image component containing it lies in $F(P)$ and hence in $U$ by maximality.

Now $1/4\in \Delta$ and its entire preimage is $\{1/2\}$, counted twice. Every component $V$ of $P^{-1}(U)$ must contain a preimage of $1/4$, so every one must be $U$. ThereforeThis is the Fatou component containing an entire fiber is completely invariant argument. The convergence on this component is locally uniform: it cannot be uniform on all of $U$, because $P^n(U)=U$ for every $n$ and $U$ contains nonzero points.

Finally suppose zero belonged to the Fatou set. A normal subsequence on a disc around zero would have limit zero, since that disc meets $\Delta$ in an open set where the entire sequence tends to zero. The identity theorem forces this limit to be zero on the whole disc. Uniform convergence in a smaller finite coordinate disc would then imply derivative convergence at zero by the Cauchy integral formula. Butfor every $n$, whereas the derivative of the zero limit is zero. This contradiction proves

For a nonconstant rational map, choose local holomorphic coordinates $u$ at $p$ and $v$ at $R(p)$, both vanishing at their centres. Its local expression has the formThe local degree of a holomorphic map is $e$. A critical point of a rational map is one with $e\ge 2$, and its critical multiplicity is $e-1$. Both are unchanged by coordinate changes with nonzero first derivatives. At finite points where $R$ is finite, multiplicity is the derivative's zero order; at poles and infinity it must be computed in the corresponding reciprocal coordinate.

We give an algebraic proof of the total count. Local derivatives are holomorphic and not identically zero, so their zeros are isolated; compactness makes the sphere critical set finite. Choose a regular target value and make it infinity by a target Möbius transformation. There are then $d$ simple poles. Independently choose a noncritical source point not mapping to this value and make it source infinity. In these coordinates all poles are finite and simple, and infinity is a regular point with finite image. Write the resulting map as $P/Q$, where $P,Q$ are coprime, $\mathrm{deg}Q=d$, and $\mathrm{deg}P\le d$. Regularity at infinity givesSince $R^{\prime }=(P^{\prime }Q-P{Q}^{\prime })/Q^2$, its numerator $W=P^{\prime }Q-P{Q}^{\prime }$ therefore has degree exactly $2d-2$. At every pole $p$, $W(p)=-P(p)Q^{\prime }(p)\ne 0$, so the roots of $W$ are precisely the finite rational critical points, with their critical multiplicities. Infinity was chosen regular. The fundamental theorem of algebra now provesThe coordinate changes preserve the local degrees of a holomorphic map, so this is the count for the original map. The printed critical-point count is with multiplicity: for example $z^d$ has only two distinct rational critical points, zero and infinity, each of multiplicity $d-1$.

Local degrees of a holomorphic map multiply under composition, since substituting leading powers of orders $e$ and $f$ gives order $ef$. ThusIf $p$ is critical for $P$, the first factor is at least two, so it is critical for every positive iterate. Conversely a product of positive integers can exceed one only if one factor exceeds one, so a rational critical point of $P^n$ reaches a rational critical point of $P$ in some $j<n$ steps (including $j=0$). At finite points this is also the derivative chain rule $(P^n{)}^{\prime }(z)={\prod }_{j=0}^{n-1}{P}^{\prime }(P^j(z))$; the local-degree argument covers infinity as well. This proves both assertions about critical points of iterates of a rational map.

For the given polynomial the finite derivative is $2z$, so the only finite rational critical point is zero. Its orbit isThe last two points form an exact two-cycle, whose periodic-orbit multiplier isThus $a=-1+i$ is a repelling periodic point. To justify its Julia membership directly, suppose the iterates were normal near $a$. A subsequence of $(P^2{)}^n$, all fixing $a$, would converge spherically on a neighborhood. Its limit takes the finite value $a$ there, so in a smaller neighborhood it and the tail of that subsequence lie in a finite coordinate chart. The Cauchy integral formula then bounds the derivatives at $a$. But those derivatives equal ${\lambda }^n$, unbounded, a contradiction. Therefore $a\in J(P)$. Complete backward invariance of the Julia set and $P^2(0)=a$ giveThe critical orbit is bounded but preperiodic to a repelling holomorphic cycle, illustrating that boundedness alone does not put a point in the Fatou set.

Suppose first that $|E|\ge 3$. Complete invariance implies that every iterate maps $\hat{\mathbb{C}}\setminus E$ into itself. Hence the family $\{f^n\}$ omits the same three points of $E$ on this open set. By Montel theorem,so

If $E$ consists of one or two points, complete invariance makes $f$ permute those points and makes every preimage of them remain in $E$. Some iterate fixes each point and is totally ramified there. In a local coordinate it therefore has the form $w\mapsto a{w}^m+O(w^{m+1})$ with $m\ge 2$, so the point is superattracting for that iterate and belongs to the Fatou set. This proves the completely invariant closed set of a rational map dichotomy.