## Escape Time Algorithm for Plotting Julia Set¶

Let $f_c:\mathbb{C}\to\mathbb{C}$ be the complex function defined by $f_c(z)=z^2+c$, where $c\in\mathbb{C}$ is a constant. For each $z$, the sequence $z_n=f_c^n(z)$, $n\geq 1$, defined by iterating the function $f_c$, is called the orbit of the point $z$..

Dropping the subscript $c$ we have:

$f^2(z)=f(f(z))=f(z^2+c)=(z^2+c)^2+c=z^4+2z^2c+c^2+c$

$f^3(z)=f(f^2(z))=(z^4+2z^2c+c^2+c)^2+c$

and so on.

For some $z\in\mathbb{C}$ the orbit $z_n=f_c^n(z)$ is bounded, while for other it tends to infinity.

A sequence $z_n$ tends to infinity if for each $r>0$, there is a rank, $N>0$, such that the modulus $|z_n|>r$, for every $n>N$.

The set of points $z$ in the complex plane, for which the sequence $z_n=f_c^n(z)$ tends to $\infty$ is called basin of attraction of $\infty$.

The filled Julia set, $K_c$, is the complement of the basin of attraction of infinity, and the Julia set, $J_c$, is the boundary of $K_c$.

We recall a few properties of the map $f_c$, and of its Julia set [R Devaney, Introduction to Chaotic Dynamical Systems]:

• If $|z|> 2$, then its orbit tends to $\infty$. Hence the (filled) Julia set is included in the disk, $D(0,2)$, centered at $0$ and of radius 2.

• From the symmetry properties of the map $f_c$ it follows that its Julia set is symmetric with respect to origin.

The simplest algorithm to detect graphically the (filled) Julia set is the Escape Time Algorithm.

The function Julia, defined below, implements this algorithm.

Fixing a maximum number of iterations, $\tt Miter$, to each $z\in\mathbb{C}$ one associates either the smallest $n<$${\tt Miter}$, for which $|z_n|> 2$ (i.e. the escape time) or $\tt Miter$ if the orbit of z does not escape from the disk $D(0,2)$ in $\tt Miter$ iterations.

In [3]:
%matplotlib inline

In [4]:
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np

In [5]:
def   Julia(z,c, Miter=80):#Miter, maximum number of allowed iterations
for n in range(Miter):
if  abs(z)>2:
return n
z = z*z + c
return Miter


In this IPython Notebook we illustrate the Julia set for 8 maps, $f_c$, corresponding to the constants, $c$, in the following list:

In [11]:
Cs=[-0.04-0.684*1j, -0.8+0.156*1j, -0.4+0.6*1j,-0.04-1j*0.668 , -0.835-0.2321*1j, -0.70176-0.3842*1j]+\
[0.300283+0.48857*1j,-0.1+0.651 ]#-0.74543+0.11301*1j


We define a meshgrid over the rectangle $[-1.5,1.5]\times[-1.5, 1.5]$:

In [7]:
Nx=1000
Ny=1000
a=1.5
x=np.linspace(-a, a, Nx)
y=np.linspace(-a, a, Ny)
x,y=np.meshgrid(x,y)
z=x+1j*y


For each constant $c\in Cs$, we generate the image associated to the numpy.array having as elements the escape times of the nodes $z[I][J]$, $I, J=\overline{0,999}$, in this grid. All points having the same escape time are colored with the same color.

The colormaps used for the 8 images are given in the following list (for more colormaps see the matplotlib page).

In [ ]:
cmp=['RdGy', 'cubehelix', 'gnuplot', 'gist_heat', 'gist_earth','terrain']+\
['RdGy', 'gist_earth']

In [10]:
fig = plt.figure(figsize=(15,24))
splot = 420
for k in range(8):
splot+=1

from IPython.core.display import HTML