Algebraic Dynamics Seminar: Sullivan’s Dictionary, Limits of deformations, and Modular Laminations

Sullivan’s dictionary between Kleinian groups and rational maps reveals how many objects, such as limit sets and Julia sets, are different names for the same thing. On a deeper level, it provides conjectures in one field that are analogs of well-known theorems in the other. One such well-known theorem, proven by W. Thurston, is the compactness of the space of representations (in Isom(H^3)) of the fundamental group of a compact 3-manifold with acylindrical boundary. The analog of this theorem for rational maps was conjectured by C. McMullen in the early 1990’s. Because there is no quotient three-manifold for a rational map, new tools are needed to study degenerating sequences of deformations.  We introduce the concept of an invariant modular lamination as a limit of degeneration and use it to prove this conjecture.