Small Dynamical Heights for Quadratic Polynomials and Rational Functions.1.1
Experimental Mathematics, 23:433–447, 2014 Copyright C Taylor & Francis Group, LLC ISSN: 1058-6458 print / 1944-950X online DOI: 10.1080/10586458.2014.938203 Small Dynamical Heights for Quadratic Polynomials and Rational Functions Robert L. Benedetto1, Ruqian Chen1, Trevor Hyde2, Yordanka Kovacheva3, and Colin White1 1Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Amherst College, Amherst, Massachusetts, USA 2Department of Mathematics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA 3Department of Mathematics, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA CONTENTS Let φ ∈ Q(z) be a polynomial or rational function of degree 2. A spe- 1. Introduction cial case of Morton and Silverman’sdynamical uniform boundedness 2. Background conjecture states that the number of rational preperiodic points of φ 3. Quadratic Polynomials is bounded above by an absolute constant. A related conjecture of 4. Quadratic Rational Functions Silverman states that the canonical height hˆφ (x) of a nonpreperiodic Acknowledgments rational point x is bounded below by a uniform multiple of the height Funding of φ itself. We provide support for these conjectures by computing References the set of preperiodic and small-height rational points for a set of degree-2 maps far beyond the range of previous searches. 1. INTRODUCTION In this paper, we consider the dynamics of a rational func- tion φ(z) ∈ Q(z) acting on P1(Q). The degree of φ = f/g is deg φ := max{deg f, deg g}, where f, g ∈ Q[z]haveno common factors. Define φ0(z) = z, and for every n ≥ 1, let Downloaded by [] at 10:38 03 August 2015 φn(z) = φ ◦ φn−1(z); that is, φn is the nth iterate of φ un- der composition.
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