Uniform Expansivity Outside a Critical Neighborhood in the Quadratic Family

Abstract

ABSTRACTWe use rigorous numerical techniques to compute a lower bound for the exponent of expansivity outside a neighborhood of the critical point for thousands of intervals of parameter values in the quadratic family. We first compute a radius of the critical neighborhood outside which the map is uniformly expanding. This radius is taken as small as possible, yet large enough for our numerical procedure to succeed in proving that the expansivity exponent outside this neighborhood is positive. Then, for each of the intervals, we compute a lower bound for this expansivity exponent, valid for all the parameters in that interval. We illustrate and study the distribution of the radii and the expansivity exponents. The results of our computations are mathematically rigorous. The source code of the software and the results of the computations are made publicly available at http://www.pawelpilarczyk.com/quadratic/.