In mathematics, infinite
composition
Composition or Compositions may refer to:
Arts and literature
* Composition (dance), practice and teaching of choreography
*Composition (language), in literature and rhetoric, producing a work in spoken tradition and written discourse, to include ...
s of
analytic function
In mathematics, an analytic function is a function that is locally given by a convergent power series. There exist both real analytic functions and complex analytic functions. Functions of each type are infinitely differentiable, but complex ...
s (ICAF) offer alternative formulations of
analytic continued fractions,
series,
products and other infinite expansions, and the theory evolving from such compositions may shed light on the
convergence/divergence of these expansions. Some functions can actually be expanded directly as infinite compositions. In addition, it is possible to use ICAF to evaluate solutions of
fixed point equations involving infinite expansions.
Complex dynamics
Complex dynamics is the study of dynamical systems defined by iteration of functions on complex number spaces. Complex analytic dynamics is the study of the dynamics of specifically analytic functions.
Techniques
*General
**Montel's theorem
**Po ...
offers another venue for
iteration of systems of functions rather than a single function. For infinite compositions of a ''single function'' see
Iterated function
In mathematics, an iterated function is a function (that is, a function from some set to itself) which is obtained by composing another function with itself a certain number of times. The process of repeatedly applying the same function ...
. For compositions of a finite number of functions, useful in
fractal
In mathematics, a fractal is a geometric shape containing detailed structure at arbitrarily small scales, usually having a fractal dimension strictly exceeding the topological dimension. Many fractals appear similar at various scales, as il ...
theory, see
Iterated function system
In mathematics, iterated function systems (IFSs) are a method of constructing fractals; the resulting fractals are often self-similar. IFS fractals are more related to set theory than fractal geometry. They were introduced in 1981.
IFS fractals ...
.
Although the title of this article specifies analytic functions, there are results for more general
functions of a complex variable
Complex analysis, traditionally known as the theory of functions of a complex variable, is the branch of mathematical analysis that investigates functions of complex numbers. It is helpful in many branches of mathematics, including algebra ...
as well.
Notation
There are several notations describing infinite compositions, including the following:
Forward compositions:
Backward compositions:
In each case convergence is interpreted as the existence of the following limits:
:
For convenience, set and .
One may also write
and
Contraction theorem
Many results can be considered extensions of the following result:
Infinite compositions of contractive functions
Let be a sequence of functions analytic on a simply-connected domain ''S''. Suppose there exists a compact set Ω ⊂ ''S'' such that for each ''n'', ''f
n''(''S'') ⊂ Ω.
Additional theory resulting from investigations based on these two theorems, particularly Forward Compositions Theorem, include location analysis for the limits obtained her
For a different approach to Backward Compositions Theorem, se
Regarding Backward Compositions Theorem, the example ''f''
2''n''(''z'') = 1/2 and ''f''
2''n''−1(''z'') = −1/2 for ''S'' = demonstrates the inadequacy of simply requiring contraction into a compact subset, like Forward Compositions Theorem.
For functions not necessarily analytic the
Contraction mapping, Lipschitz condition suffices:
Infinite compositions of other functions
Non-contractive complex functions
Results involving
entire function
In complex analysis, an entire function, also called an integral function, is a complex-valued function that is holomorphic on the whole complex plane. Typical examples of entire functions are polynomials and the exponential function, and any fin ...
s include the following, as examples. Set
:
Then the following results hold:
Additional elementary results include:
Example GF1: