Newton fractal

The Newton fractal is a boundary set in the complex plane which is characterized by Newton's method applied to a fixed polynomial or transcendental function. It is the Julia set of the meromorphic function which is given by Newton's method. When there are no attractive cycles (of order greater than 1), it divides the complex plane into regions , each of which is associated with a root of the polynomial, . In this way the Newton fractal is similar to the Mandelbrot set, and like other fractals it exhibits an intricate appearance arising from a simple description. It is relevant to numerical analysis because it shows that (outside the region of quadratic convergence) the Newton method can be very sensitive to its choice of start point.

Almost all points of the complex plane are associated with one of the roots of a given polynomial in the following way: the point is used as starting value for Newton's iteration , yielding a sequence of points If the sequence converges to the root , then was an element of the region . However, for every polynomial of degree at least 2 there are points for which the Newton iteration does not converge to any root: examples are the boundaries of the basins of attraction of the various roots. There are even polynomials for which open sets of starting points fail to converge to any root: a simple example is , where some points are attracted by the cycle rather than by a root.

An open set for which the iterations converge towards a given root or cycle (that is not a fixed point), is a Fatou set for the iteration. The complementary set to the union of all these, is the Julia set. The Fatou sets have common boundary, namely the Julia set. Therefore, each point of the Julia set is a point of accumulation for each of the Fatou sets. It is this property that causes the fractal structure of the Julia set (when the degree of the polynomial is larger than 2).

To plot images of the fractal, one may first choose a specified number of complex points and compute the coefficients of the polynomial
:$p(z)=z^d+p_1z^+\cdots+p_z+p_d:=(z-\zeta_1)(z-\zeta_2)\cdots(z-\zeta_d)$.
Then for a rectangular lattice
:$z_ = z_ + m \, \Delta x + in \, \Delta y; \quad m = 0, \ldots, M - 1; \quad n = 0, \ldots, N - 1$
of points in , one finds the index of the corresponding root and uses this to fill an raster grid by assigning to each point a color . Additionally or alternatively the colors may be dependent on the distance , which is defined to be the first value such that for some previously fixed small .

Generalization of Newton fractals

A generalization of Newton's iteration is

: $z_=z_n- a \frac$

where is any complex number. The special choice corresponds to the Newton fractal.
The fixed points of this map are stable when lies inside the disk of radius 1 centered at 1. When is outside this disk, the fixed points are locally unstable, however the map still exhibits a fractal structure in the sense of Julia set. If is a polynomial of degree , then the sequence is bounded provided that is inside a disk of radius centered at .

More generally, Newton's fractal is a special case of a Julia set.

File:FRACT008.png, Newton fractal for three degree-3 roots , coloured by number of iterations required
File:Newtroot 1 0 0 m1.png, Newton fractal for three degree-3 roots , coloured by root reached
File:Newton z3-2z+2.png, Newton fractal for . Points in the red basins do not reach a root.
File:Colored Newton Fractal 2.png, Newton fractal for a 7th order polynomial, colored by root reached and shaded by rate of convergence.
File:Timelapse34.jpg, Newton fractal for
File:Newtroot 1 0 m3i m5m2i 3 1.png, Newton fractal for , coloured by root reached, shaded by number of iterations required.
File:Timelapse4.jpg, Newton fractal for , coloured by root reached, shaded by number of iterations required
File:Sin(x) detail.png, Another Newton fractal for
File:Mnfrac1.png, Generalized Newton fractal for , . The colour was chosen based on the argument after 40 iterations.
File:Mnfrac2.png, Generalized Newton fractal for , .
File:Mnfrac3.png, Generalized Newton fractal for , .
File:Mnfrac4.png, Generalized Newton fractal for , .
File:Newton z6 z3.jmb.jpg,

File:Newton SINUS.jmb.jpg,

File:JMB_NEWTON_SIN(Z)_-_A_=_0_(Tipus=_5200)(_1600x_1200)_.00001_.00001_1_3_10_Pal=_13_3_Fc=_0_10_(Iter=_100)Seg=_84.jpg,

File:Newton COSH.jmb.jpg,

File:JMB_Newton_Cosh(Z)-_A_=_0_(Tipus=_5205)(_1600x_1200)_.0000001_.0000001_1_3_9_Pal=_13_3_Fc=_0_10_(Iter=_100)Seg=_123.jpg,

Serie :

File:JMB_Newton_Z^3_-_A_=_0_(Tipus=_5003)(_1600x_1200)_.00001_.00001_1_3_7_Pal=_0_1.2_Fc=_0_1_(Iter=_100)Seg=_30.jpg,
File:JMB_Newton_Z^3_-_A_=_0_(Tipus=_5003)(_1600x_1200)_.00001_.00001_2_2.1_7_Pal=_8_2_Fc=_0_1_(Iter=_200)Seg=_60.jpg,
File:JMB_Newton_Z^4_-_A_=_0_(Tipus=_5004)(_1600x_1200)_.00001_.00001_1_3_7_Pal=_0_1.6_Fc=_0_1_(Iter=_100)Seg=_31.jpg,
File:JMB_Newton_Z^4_-_A_=_0_(Tipus=_5004)(_1600x_1200)_.00001_.00001_2_0_7_Pal=_0_13_Fc=_0_1_(Iter=_200)Seg=_62.jpg,
File:JMB_Newton_Z^5_-_A_=_0_(Tipus=_5005)(_1600x_1200)_.00001_.00001_1_3_7_Pal=_0_1_Fc=_0_1_(Iter=_100)Seg=_32.jpg,
File:JMB_Newton_Z^5_-_A_=_0_(Tipus=_5005)(_1600x_1200)_.00001_.00001_2_0_10_Pal=_13_15_Fc=_0_1_(Iter=_200)Seg=_62.jpg,
File:JMB_Newton_Z^6_-_A_=_0_(Tipus=_5006)(_1600x_1200)_.00001_.00001_1_3_7_Pal=_0_1_Fc=_0_1_(Iter=_100)Seg=_31.jpg,
File:JMB_Newton_Z^7_-_A_=_0_(Tipus=_5007)(_1600x_1200)_.00001_.00001_1_3_7_Pal=_0_1_Fc=_0_1_(Iter=_100)Seg=_32.jpg,
File:JMB_Newton_Z^8_-_A_=_0_(Tipus=_5008)(_1600x_1200)_.00001_.00001_1_3_7_Pal=_0_1_Fc=_0_1_(Iter=_100)Seg=_33.jpg,
File:JMB_Newton_Z^10_-_A_=_0_(Tipus=_5010)(_1600x_1200)_.00001_.00001_1_3_7_Pal=_0_1_Fc=_0_1_(Iter=_100)Seg=_117.jpg,
Other fractals where potential and trigonometric functions are multiplied.

File:JMB_Newton_Z^2_Sin(Z)-_A_=_0_(Tipus=_5209)(_1600x_1200)_.00001_.00001_1_1_7_Pal=_5_7_Fc=_0_1_(Iter=_600)Seg=_54.jpg,
File:JMB_Newton_Z^2_Sin(Z)-_A_=_0_(Tipus=_5209)(_1600x_1200)_.00001_.00001_1_1_7_Pal=_5_4_Fc=_0_1_(Iter=_95)Seg=_57.jpg,
File:JMB_Newton_Z^3_Sin(Z)-_A_=_0_(Tipus=_5210)(_1600x_1200)_.00001_.00001_1_1_7_Pal=_5_8_Fc=_0_1_(Iter=_700)Seg=_65.jpg,
File:JMB_Newton_Z^4_Sin(Z)-_A_=_0_(Tipus=_5211)(_1600x_1200)_.00001_.00001_1_1_7_Pal=_5_6_Fc=_0_1_(Iter=_900)Seg=_124.jpg,
File:JMB_Newton_Z^4_Sin(Z)-_A_=_0_(Tipus=_5211)(_1600x_1200)_.00001_.00001_1_1_7_Pal=_5_3_Fc=_0_1_(Iter=_270)Seg=_80.jpg,
File:JMB_Newton_Z^5_Sin(Z)-_A_=_0_(Tipus=_5212)(_1600x_1200)_.00001_.00001_1_1_7_Pal=_5_4_Fc=_0_1_(Iter=_500)Seg=_206.jpg,
File:JMB_Newton_Z^6_Sin(Z)-_A_=_0_(Tipus=_5213)(_1600x_1200)_.00001_.00001_1_1_7_Pal=_5_5_Fc=_0_1_(Iter=_1000)Seg=_332.jpg,
File:JMB_Newton_Z^6_Sin(Z)-_A_=_0_(Tipus=_5213)(_1600x_1200)_.00001_.00001_1_1_7_Pal=_5_5_Fc=_0_1_(Iter=_1000)Seg=_220.jpg,

Nova fractal

The Nova fractal invented in the mid 1990s by Paul Derbyshire, is a generalization of the Newton fractal with the addition of a value at each step:

: $z_=z_n- a \frac + c = G(a, c, z)$

The "Julia" variant of the Nova fractal keeps constant over the image and initializes to the pixel coordinates. The "Mandelbrot" variant of the Nova fractal initializes to the pixel coordinates and sets to a critical point, where

:$\frac G(a, c, z) = 0.$

Commonly-used polynomials like or lead to a critical point at .

File:NovaFractal p(z)=z³-1 c=-1→1.gif, Animated "Julia" Nova fractal for with going from −1 to 1, colored by root reached.
File:NovaFractal p(z)=z³-1 C=0.5e^iφ.gif, Animated "Julia" Nova fractal for with and going from 0 to 2, colored by root reached.

Implementation

In order to implement the Newton fractal, it is necessary to have a starting function as well as its derivative function:

: $\begin f(z) &= z^3 - 1 \\ f'(z) &= 3z^2 \end$

The three roots of the function are

: $z = 1,\ -\tfrac12 + \tfraci,\ -\tfrac12 - \tfraci$

The above-defined functions can be translated in pseudocode as follows:

//z^3-1
float2 Function (float2 z)

//3*z^2
float2 Derivative (float2 z)

It is now just a matter of implementing the Newton method using the given functions.

float2 roots = //Roots (solutions) of the polynomial
;

color colors = //Assign a color for each root

For each pixel (x, y) on the target, do:

See also

* Julia set
* Mandelbrot set

References

Further reading

J. H. Hubbard, D. Schleicher, S. Sutherland
''How to Find All Roots of Complex Polynomials by Newton's Method'', Inventiones Mathematicae vol. 146 (2001) – with a discussion of the global structure of Newton fractals

by Dierk Schleicher July 21, 2000
''Newton's Method as a Dynamical System''
by Johannes Rueckert

{{Fractals

Numerical analysis
Fractals