Unraveling the Mysteries of the Mandelbrot Set
Originally Published 1 year ago — by Quanta Magazine
The Mandelbrot set, a famous fractal shape, captivated mathematicians and the public in the 1980s but later faded into obscurity. However, a group of mathematicians has continued to unravel its mysteries, with recent progress made towards proving the long-standing MLC conjecture. The Mandelbrot set's intricate geometry has led to the development of sophisticated techniques that have transformed the study of dynamical systems. The set's founders, Pierre Fatou and Gaston Julia, pioneered the study of iterated functions, which later inspired Benoît Mandelbrot to use computer graphics to bring complex dynamics to the forefront. The MLC conjecture, which posits that the Mandelbrot set is locally connected, has become one of the field's deepest and most important open conjectures.