A generalized mandelbrot set and the role of critical points

Abstract We examine the Julia sets for certain cubic and quartic polynomials and observe the structure of the Julia set as determined by the orbits of the critical points. In examples where the orbits of some critical points diverge and others converge, or where orbits converge to different cycles, we note the local structure of the Julia set is dominated by the behavior of the nearest critical point. This information is encoded in a generalized Mandelbrot set reflecting the behavior of all the critical points.