The Real Dynamics of Bieberbach’s Example

Abstract

Bieberbach constructed, in 1933, domains in $${\mathbb {C}}^2$$ which were biholomorphic to $${\mathbb {C}}^2$$ but not dense. The existence of such domains was unexpected. The special domains Bieberbach considered are basins of attraction of a cubic Henon map. This classical method of construction is one of the first applications of dynamical systems to complex analysis. In this paper, the boundaries of the real sections of Bieberbach’s domains will be calculated explicitly as the stable manifolds of the saddle points. The real filled Julia sets and the real Julia sets of Bieberbach’s map will also be calculated explicitly and illustrated with computer generated graphics. Basic differences between real and the complex dynamics will be shown.