cplx_escape_time — MATH complex op

• Data kinds: none → image2d (an op determined by its arguments alone — it takes no image or data input)

• Call: import fullseye as fs; fs.ledger.cplx_escape_time(kind='mandelbrot', param=0j, centre=0j, half_width=2.0, shape=(256, 256), max_iter=64, escape_radius=2.0) (to call the implementation directly, import mathops; mathops.cplx_escape_time(kind='mandelbrot', param=0j, centre=0j, half_width=2.0, shape=(256, 256), max_iter=64, escape_radius=2.0); from the registry, opsmath.get("cplx_escape_time"))

Usage

How many steps of `z -> z**2 + c` it takes to leave the escape disc.

`kind="mandelbrot" varies c over the window from z = 0`;

`kind="julia" fixes c = param and varies the starting z`. The

result is a float image of iteration counts; points that never escape carry

`max_iter`.

★This one is gated by theorems, not by a reference picture.

• *Escape radius*: once `|z| > 2 (with |c| <= 2`) the orbit diverges,

so `escape_radius = 2` is not a tuning knob but the exact threshold.

• *Main cardioid*: `c` lies in the main cardioid iff the fixed point

`z* = (1 - sqrt(1 - 4c)) / 2 is attracting, i.e. |2 z*| < 1`.

Every such `c` provably never escapes, so those pixels must read

exactly `max_iter` — a closed-form interior test for a set usually

drawn by iteration alone. The period-2 bulb `|c + 1| < 1/4` is the

same kind of statement.

• *Symmetry*: both families are invariant under conjugation, so the image

must be exactly mirror-symmetric about the real axis (bit for bit,

not to a tolerance) when the window is.

Raises `ValueError: unknown kind; non-finite param`;

`max_iter < 1; escape_radius <= 0`; degenerate window.

HALCON: no operator.

Family-wide input contract (fail-closed)

Every mathops op validates its input before computing (nothing slips through silently):

• **complex input raises ValueError** — coercing to float64 silently discards the imaginary part (numpy only emits a ComplexWarning and returns a plausible-looking wrong real number). State .real/.imag/abs() explicitly, or use complexops, which handles complex data.

• **masked arrays with masked elements raise ValueError** — the implicit conversion that peels off the mask and uses the raw values underneath is refused. Say explicitly whether to fill or to drop.

• **NaN/Inf raises ValueError on every input** (refused with the count stated — it propagates through the whole result).

• Shapes are strict: 1-D and 2-D are never implicitly promoted or broadcast (a matrix in a vector slot, or a vector in a matrix slot, raises ValueError; reshape explicitly).

• Size cap: ops that take a matrix, and the stat_histogram bins, raise ValueError beyond mathops.MAX_ELEMENTS (2^26 ≈ 67 million elements).

Detailed usage guide

• math_metrology family guide

References (sample data, literature)

• Sample-data catalog (download URLs / licences) — 2-D uses skimage.data (BSD/public domain) plus synthetic images; 3-D lists download URLs for real data sources (Stanford, PDS, …).

• Operator provenance and references — the sources of the research/methods this op family came from.

• The canonical algorithm (author, year) and its uses are named in the family usage guide above.

Runnable examples (verified samples that actually call this op)

• poc_complex_plane_fields — py -3.11 examples/poc_complex_plane_fields.py

Ops the type connects to (they accept image2d as input)

wave_fringe_period

Same category (complex)

cplx_contour_circle · cplx_poly_eval · cplx_contour_integral · cplx_winding_number · cplx_cauchy_value · cplx_argument_principle · cplx_laurent_coeffs · cplx_joukowski


*Provenance: mathops.py — MATH operator registry. This per-op note is generated by tools/opdocs.py md (do not hand-edit).*

© 2026 Kazufumi Furuse — Fullseye operator documentation. Licensed under Apache-2.0.