The Geometry of the Critically-Periodic Curves in the Space of Cubic Polynomials

We provide an algorithm for computing the Euler characteristic of the curves in consisting of all polynomials with a periodic critical point of period p in the space of critically marked complex cubic polynomials. The curves were introduced in [Milnor 09, Bonifant etal. 10], and the algorithm applies the main results of [DeMarco and Pilgrim 11b]. The output is shown for periods p <= 26.