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Concept
Mandelbrot set
Summary
The Mandelbrot set (ˈmændəlbroʊt,_-brɒt) is a two dimensional set with a relatively simple definition that exhibits great complexity, especially as it is magnified. It is popular for its aesthetic appeal and fractal structures. The set is defined in the complex plane as the complex numbers for which the function does not diverge to infinity when iterated starting at , i.e., for which the sequence , , etc., remains bounded in absolute value.
This set was first defined and drawn by Robert W. Brooks and Peter Matelski in 1978, as part of a study of Kleinian groups. Afterwards, in 1980, Benoit Mandelbrot obtained high-quality visualizations of the set while working at IBM's Thomas J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, New York.
Images of the Mandelbrot set exhibit an infinitely complicated boundary that reveals progressively ever-finer recursive detail at increasing magnifications; mathematically, the boundary of the Mandelbrot set is a fractal curve. The "style" of this recursive detail depends on the region of the set boundary being examined. Mandelbrot set images may be created by sampling the complex numbers and testing, for each sample point , whether the sequence goes to infinity. Treating the real and imaginary parts of as s on the complex plane, pixels may then be colored according to how soon the sequence crosses an arbitrarily chosen threshold (the threshold has to be at least 2, as -2 is the complex number with the largest magnitude within the set, but otherwise the threshold is arbitrary). If is held constant and the initial value of is varied instead, the corresponding Julia set for the point is obtained.
The Mandelbrot set has become popular outside mathematics both for its aesthetic appeal and as an example of a complex structure arising from the application of simple rules. It is one of the best-known examples of mathematical visualization, mathematical beauty, and motif.
The Mandelbrot set has its origin in complex dynamics, a field first investigated by the French mathematicians Pierre Fatou and Gaston Julia at the beginning of the 20th century.
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Complex dynamics
Complex dynamics, or holomorphic dynamics, is the study of dynamical systems obtained by iterating a complex analytic mapping. This article focuses on the case of algebraic dynamics, where a polynomial or rational function is iterated. In geometric terms, that amounts to iterating a mapping from some algebraic variety to itself. The related theory of arithmetic dynamics studies iteration over the rational numbers or the p-adic numbers instead of the complex numbers.