Puzzles and the Fatou-Shishikura injection for rational Newton maps

Abstract

We establish a principle that we call the Fatou-Shishikura injection for Newton maps of polynomials: there is a dynamically natural injection from the set of non-repelling periodic orbits of any Newton map to the set of its critical orbits. This injection obviously implies the classical Fatou-Shishikura inequality, but it is stronger in the sense that every non-repelling periodic orbit has its own critical orbit. Moreover, for every Newton map we associate a forward invariant graph (a puzzle) which provides a dynamically defined partition of the Riemann sphere into closed topological disks (puzzle pieces). This puzzle construction is for rational Newton maps what Yoccoz puzzles are for polynomials: it provides the foundation for all kinds of rigidity results of Newton maps beyond our Fatou-Shishikura injection. Moreover, it gives necessary structure for a classification of the postcritically finite maps in the spirit of Thurston theory.