The continuum self-similar tree Mario Bonk and Huy Tran Abstract We introduce the continuum self-similar tree (CSST) as the attractor of an iterated function system in the complex plane. We provide a topological characteri- zation of the CSST and use this to relate the CSST to other metric trees such as the continuum random tree (CRT) and Julia sets of postcritically-finite polynomials. Key words: Metric tree, iterated function system, continuum random tree, Julia set. Mathematics Subject Classifications (2010). Primary: 37C70; Secondary: 37B45. 1 Introduction In this expository paper, we study the topological properties of a certain subset T of the complex plane C. It is defined as the attractor of an iterated function system. As we will see, T has a self-similar “tree-like" structure with very regular branching behavior. In a sense it is the simplest object of this type. Sets homeomorphic to T appear in various other contexts. Accordingly, we give the set T a special name, and call it the continuum self-similar tree (CSST). To give the precise definition of T we consider the following contracting homeo- morphisms on C: 1 1 1 1 i i f1¹zº = 2 z − 2; f2¹zº = 2 z¯ + 2; f3¹zº = 2 z¯ + 2 : (1.1) Then the following statement is true. arXiv:1803.09694v2 [math.GT] 22 Feb 2020 Mario Bonk Department of Mathematics, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA, e-mail:
[email protected] Huy Tran Institut für Mathematik, Technische Universität Berlin, Sekr. MA 7-1, Strasse des 17. Juni 136, 10623 Berlin, Germany, e-mail:
[email protected] 1 2 Mario Bonk and Huy Tran Proposition 1.1.