arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Joseph H. Silverman.
It is known that Szpiro's conjecture, or equivalently the ABC-conjecture, implies Lang's conjecture giving a uniform lower bound for the canonical height of nontorsion points on elliptic curves. In this note we show that a significantly weaker version of Szpiro's conjecture, which we call "prime-depleted," suffices to prove Lang's conjecture.
Let K be a number field or a function field, let F:P^1 --> P^1 be a rational map of degree at least two defined over K, let P be a point in P^1(K) having infinite F-orbit, and let Z be a finite subset of Z. We prove a local-global criterion for the intersection of the F-orbit of P and the finite set Z. This is a special case of a dynamical Brauer-Manin criterion suggested by Hsia and Silverman.
Let F : X --> X be a morphism of a variety defined over a number field K, let V be a K-subvariety of X, and let O_F(P)= {F^n(P) :n=0,1,2,...} be the orbit of a point P in X(K). We describe a local-global principle for the intersection of V and O_F(P). This principle may be viewed as a dynamical analog of the Brauer-Manin obstruction. We show that the rational points of V(K) are Brauer--Manin unobstructed for power maps on P^2 in two cases: (1) V is a translate of a torus. (2) V is a line and P has a preperiodic coordinate. A key tool in the proofs is the classical Bang-Zsigmondy theorem on primitive divisors in sequences. We also prove analogous local-global results for dynamical systems associated to endomoprhisms of abelian varieties.
Let F(z) be a rational function in Q(z) of degree at least 2 with F(0) = 0 and such that F does not vanish to order d at 0. Let b be a rational number having infinite orbit under iteration of F, and write F^n(b) = A_n/B_n as a fraction in lowest terms. We prove that for all but finitely many n > 0, the numerator A_n has a primitive divisor, i.e., there is a prime p such that p divides A_n and p does not divide A_i for all i < n. More generally, we prove an analogous result when F is defined over a number field and 0 is a periodic point for F.
Let F : V --> V be a self-morphism of a quasiprojective variety defined over a number field K and let P be a point in V(K) with infinite orbit under iteration of F. For each prime ideal p of good reduction, let m_p(F,P) be the size of the F-orbit of the reduction of P modulo p. Fix any e > 0. We show that for almost all primes p, in the sense of analytic density, the orbit size m_p(F,P) is larger than (log(N(p)))^(1-e), where N(p) is the norm of the ideal p.
Let F: P^N_K --> P^N_K be a morphism of degree d > 1 defined over a field K that is algebraically closed and complete with respect to a nonarchimedean absolute value. We prove that a modified Green function G_F associated to F is Holder continuous on P^N(K) and that the Fatou set F is equal to the set of points at which G_F is locally constant. Further, G_F vanishes precisely on the set of points P such that F has good reduction at every point in the forward orbit of P. We also prove that the iterates of F are locally uniformly Lipschitz on the Fatou set of F.
Let F and G be morphisms of degree at least 2 from P^N to P^N that are defined over the algebraic closure of Q. We define the arithmetic distance d(F,G) between F and G to be the supremum over all algebraic points P of |h_F(P)-h_G(P)|, where h_F and h_G are the canonical heights associated to the morphisms F and G, respectively. We prove comparison theorems relating d(F,G) to more naive height functions and show that for a fixed G, the set of F satisfying d(F,G) < B is a set of bounded height. In particular, there are only finitely many such F defined over any given number field.
Let E/Q be an elliptic curve with a fixed modular parametrization F : X_0(N) --> E and let P_1,...,P_r be Heegner points on E attached to the rings of integers of distinct quadratic imaginary field k_1,...,k_r. We prove that if the odd parts of the class numbers of k_1,...,k_r are larger than a constant C=C(E,F) depending only on E and F, then the points P_1,...,P_r are independent in E/(torsion). We also discuss a possible application to the elliptic curve discrete logarithm problem.
We apply Vojta's conjecture to blowups and deduce a number of deep statements regarding (generalized) greatest common divisors on varieties, in particular on projective space and on abelian varieties. Special cases of these statements generalize earlier results and conjectures. We also discuss the relationship between generalized greatest common divisors and the divisibility sequences attached to algebraic groups, and we apply Vojta's conjecture to obtain a strong bound on the divisibility sequences attached to abelian varieties of dimension at least two.
For a given point P in the group of K-rational points E(K) of an elliptic curve, we consider the sequence of values (F_1(P),F_2(P),F_3(P),...) of the division polynomials of E at P. If K is a finite field, we prove that the sequence is periodic. If K/Q_p is a local field, we prove (under certain hypotheses) that there is a power q=p^e so that for all m > 0, the limit as k goes to infinity of F_{mq^{k}}(P) exists in K and is algebraic over Q(E). We apply this result to prove an analogous p-adic limit and algebraicity result for elliptic divisibility sequences.
An elliptic divisibility sequence (EDS) is a sequence of integers W_0,W_1,W_2,... generated by the nonlinear recursion satisfied by the division polyomials of an elliptic curve. We give a formula for the sign of W_n for unbounded nonsingular elliptic divisibility sequences. A typical case is Sign(W_n) = (-1)^[n*b] for an irrational real number b, where [x] denotes the greatest integer in x. As an application, we show that the associated sequence of absolute values |W_1|,|W_2|,|W_3|,... cannot be realized as the sequence counting fixed points of any (abstract) dynamical system.
Let E/k(T) be an elliptic curve defined over a rational function field of characteristic zero. Fix a Weierstrass equation for E. For points R in E(k(T)), write x_R=A_R/D_R^2 with relatively prime polynomials A_R(T) and D_R(T) in k[T]. The sequence {D_{nR}) for n \ge 1 is called the ``elliptic divisibility sequence of R.'' Let P,Q in E(k(T)) be independent points. We conjecture that deg (gcd(D_{nP},D_{mQ})) is bounded for m,n \ge 1, and that gcd(D_{nP},D_{nQ}) = gcd(D_{P},D_{Q}) for infinitely many n \ge 1. We prove these conjectures in the case that j(E) is in k. More generally, we prove analogous statements with k(T) replaced by the function field of any curve and with P and Q allowed to lie on different elliptic curves. If instead k is a finite field of characteristic p, and again assuming that j(E) is in k, we show that deg (gcd(D_{nP},D_{nQ})) > n + O(sqrt{n}) for infinitely many n satisfying gcd(n,p) = 1.
Ailon and Rudnick have shown that if $a,b \in C[T]$ are multiplicatively independent polynomials, then $°(\gcd(a^n-1,b^n-1))$ is bounded for all $n\ge1$. We show that if instead $a,b \in F[T]$ for a finite field $F$ of characteristic $p$, then $°(\gcd(a^n-1,b^n-1))$ is larger than $Cn$ for a constant $C=C(a,b)>0$ and for infinitely many $n$, even if $n$ is restricted in various reasonable ways (e.g., $gec(n,p)=1$).
Let E --> C be an elliptic surface defined over a number field K. For each finite covering C' --> C defined over K, let E' --> C' be the pullback. We give a strong upper bound for the rank of E'(C'/K) in the case that C' --> C is an unramified abelian covering and under the assumption that the Tate conjecture is true for the surface E'/K. In the case that C is an elliptic curve and the map C'=C --> C is the multiplication-by-n map, the rank of E'(C'/K) is O(n^e) for every e > 0, which may be compared with the elementary bound of O(n^2).
Let E/K be an ellptic curve defined over a number field, let h be the canonical height on E, and let K^ab be the maximal abelian extension of K. Extending work of M. Baker, we prove that there is a positive constant C(E/K) so that every nontorsion point P in E(K^ab) satisfies h(P) > C(E/K).
The set of morphisms $\f:\PP^1\to\PP^1$ of degree $d$ is parametrized by an affine open subset $\Rat_d$ of $\PP^{2d+1}$. We consider the action of~$\SL_2$ on $\Rat_d$ induced by the {\it conjugation action\/} of $\SL_2$ on rational maps; that is, $f\in\SL_2$ acts on~$\f$ via $\f^f=f^{-1}\circ\f\circ f$. The quotient space $\M_d=\Rat_d/\SL_2$ arises very naturally in the study of discrete dynamical systems on~$\PP^1$. We prove that~$\M_d$ exists as an affine integral scheme over~$\ZZ$, that $\M_2$ is isomorphic to~$Å^2_\ZZ$, and that the natural completion of~$\M_2$ obtained using geometric invariant theory is isomorphic to~$\PP^2_\ZZ$. These results, which generalize results of Milnor over~$\CC$, should be useful for studying the arithmetic properties of dynamical systems.