Roots, Schottky semigroups, and a proof of Bandts Conjecture

In 1985, Barnsley and Harrington defined a ``Mandelbrot Set $mathcal{M}$ for pairs of similarities --- this is the set of complex numbers $z$ with $0<|z|<1$ for which the limit set of the semigroup generated by the similarities $x mapsto zx$ and $x mapsto z(x-1)+1$ is connected. Equivalently, $mathcal{M}$ is the closure of the set of roots of polynomials with coefficients in $lbrace -1,0,1 rbrace$. Barnsley and Harrington already noted the (numerically apparent) existence of infinitely many small ``holes in $mathcal{M}$, and conjectured that these holes were genuine. These holes are very interesting, since they are ``exotic components of the space of (2 generator) Schottky semigroups. The existence of at least one hole was rigorously confirmed by Bandt in 2002, and he conjectured that the interior points are dense away from the real axis. We introduce the technique of traps to construct and certify interior points of $mathcal{M}$, and use them to prove Bandts Conjecture. Furthermore, our techniques let us certify the existence of infinitely many holes in $mathcal{M}$.

On stable commutator length in hyperelliptic mapping class groups

We give a new upper bound on the stable commutator length of Dehn twists in hyperelliptic mapping class groups, and determine the stable commutator length of some elements. We also calculate values and the defects of homogeneous quasimorphisms derived from omega-signatures, and show that they are linearly independent in the mapping class groups of pointed 2-spheres when the number of points is small.