Blocks of monodromy groups in complex dynamics

Motivated by a problem in complex dynamics, we examine the block structure of the natural action of iterated monodromy groups on the tree of preimages of a generic point. We show that in many cases, including when the polynomial has prime power degree, there are no large blocks other than those arising naturally from the tree structure. However, using a method of construction based on real graphs of polynomials, we exhibit a nontrivial example of a degree 6 polynomial failing to have this property. This example settles a problem raised in a recent paper of the second author regarding constant weighted sums of polynomials in the complex plane. We also show that degree 6 is exceptional in another regard, as it is the lowest degree for which the monodromy group of a polynomial is not determined by the combinatorics of the post-critical set. These results give new applications of iterated monodromy groups to complex dynamics.