Title: Thurston’s Master Teapot
Speaker: Kathryn Lindsey – Boston College
Abstract: When a multimodal self-map of an interval is postcritically finite (PCF), its growth rate (the exponential of its topological entropy) is a special type of algebraic number called a weak Perron number. W. Thurston plotted the set of all Galois conjugates of growth rates of PCF unimodal maps; this visually stunning image revealed that this set has a rich and mysterious geometric structure. Thurston’s Master Teapot is a closely related 3D set. This talk will present some of the basic topological and geometrical properties of these sets. Based on joint work with C. Wu. H. Bray, D. Davis.