The Astrobiological Landscape: Philosophical Foundations of the Study of Cosmic Life: 7 (Cambridge Astrobiology, Series Number 7)

Since its introduction in the early 1980s quasiconformal surgery has become a major tool in the development of the theory of holomorphic dynamics, and it is essential background knowledge for any researcher in the field. In this comprehensive introduction the authors begin with the foundations and a general description of surgery techniques before turning their attention to a wide variety of applications. They demonstrate the different types of surgeries that lie behind many important results in holomorphic dynamics, dealing in particular with Julia sets and the Mandelbrot set. Two of these surgeries go beyond the classical realm of quasiconformal surgery and use trans-quasiconformal surgery. Another deals with holomorphic correspondences, a natural generalization of holomorphic maps. The book is ideal for graduate students and researchers requiring a self-contained text including a variety of applications. It particularly emphasises the geometrical ideas behind the proofs, with many helpful illustrations seldom found in the literature.