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Patrick Ingram

Publications and source records attributed to Patrick Ingram.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
arXiv2014

Canonical heights for correspondences

The canonical height associated to a polarized endomporhism of a projective variety, constructed by Call and Silverman and generalizing the Néron-Tate height on a polarized Abelian variety, plays an important role in the arithmetic theory of dynamical systems. We generalize this construction to polarized correspondences, prove various fundamental properties, and show how the global canonical height decomposes as an integral of a local height over the space of absolute values on the algebraic closure of the field of definition.

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arXiv2014

Critical dynamics of variable-separated affine correspondences

We examine affine correspondences of the form g(y)=f(x), for f and g polynomials satisfying deg(g) < deg(f), with the property that every critical point of the correspondence admits at least one finite forward orbit. In the case g(y)=y, this reduces to the study of post-critically finite polynomials, and our main result extends earlier finiteness results of the author. Specifically, we show that the collection of such correspondences of a given bidegree coincides with a subset of the parameter space of bounded Weil height. We also show that there are no non-trivial holomorphic families of correspondences with the above-described property.

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arXiv2014

Variation of the canonical height for polynomials in several variables

Let K be a number field, X/K a curve, and f/X a family of endomorphisms of projective N-space. It follows from a result of Call and Silverman that the canonical height associated to the family f, evaluated along a section, differs from a Weil height on the base by little-o of a Weil height. In the case where f is a family with an invariant hyperplane, whose restriction to this invariant hyperplane is isotrivial, we improve this by showing that the canonical height along a section differs from a Weil height on the base by a bounded amount.

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arXiv2013

Attracting cycles in p-adic dynamics and height bounds for post-critically finite maps

A rational function of degree at least two with coefficients in an algebraically closed field is post-critically finite (PCF) if all of its critical points have finite forward orbit under iteration. We show that the collection of PCF rational functions is a set of bounded height in the moduli space of rational functions over the complex numbers, once the well-understood family known as flexible Lattes maps is excluded. As a consequence, there are only finitely many conjugacy classes of non-Lattes PCF rational maps of a given degree defined over any given number field. The key ingredient of the proof is a non-archimedean version of Fatou's classical result that every attracting cycle of a rational function over the complex numbers attracts a critical point.

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arXiv2013

Rigidity and height bounds for certain post-critically finite endomorphisms of projective space

The holomorphic endomorphism f of projective space is called post-critically finite (PCF) if the forward image of the critical locus, under iteration of f, has algebraic support (i.e., is a finite union of hypersurfaces). In the case of dimension 1, a deep result of Thurston implies that there are no algebraic families of PCF morphisms, other than a well-understood exceptional class known as the flexible Lattes maps. This note proves a corresponding result in arbitrary dimension, for a certain subclass of morphism. Specifically, we restrict attention to morphisms f of degree at least two, with a totally invariant hyperplane H, such that the restriction of f to H is the dth power map in some coordinates. This condition defines a subvariety of the space of coordinate-free endomorphisms of projective space (of a given dimension). We prove that there are no families of PCF maps in this space, and derive several related arithmetic results.

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arXiv2013

The filled Julia set of a Drinfeld module and uniform bounds for torsion

If M is a Drinfeld module over a local function field L, we may view M as a dynamical system, and consider its filled Julia set J. If J^0 is the connected component of the identity, relative to the Berkovich topology, we give a characterisation of the component module J/J^0 which is analogous to the Kodaira-Neron characterisation of the special fibre of a Neron model of an elliptic curve over a non-archimedean field. In particular, if L is the fraction field of a discrete valuation ring, then the component module is finite, and moreover trivial in the case of good reduction. In the context of global function fields, the filled Julia set may be considered as an object over the ring of finite adeles. In this setting we formulate a conjecture about the structure of the (finite) component module which, if true, would imply Poonen's Uniform Boundedness Conjecture for torsion on Drinfeld modules of a given rank over a given global function field. Finally, we prove this conjecture for certain families of Drinfeld modules, obtaining uniform bounds on torsion in some special cases.

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arXiv2012

A lower bound for the canonical height associated to a Drinfeld module

Denis associated to each Drinfeld module M over a global function function field L a canonical height function, which plays a role analogous to that of the Neron-Tate height in the context of elliptic curves. We prove that there exist constants ε>0 and C, depending only on the number of places at which M has bad reduction, such that either x in M is a torsion point of bounded order, or else the canonical height of x is bound below by εmax{h(j_M), deg(D_M)}, where j_M is a certain invariant of the isomorphism class of M, and D_M is the minimal discriminant of M. As an application, we make some observations about specializations of one-parameter families of Drinfeld modules.

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arXiv2011

Arboreal Galois representations and uniformization of polynomial dynamics

Given a polynomial f of degree d defined over a complete local field, we construct a biholomorphic change of variables defined in a neighbourhood of infinity which transforms the action z->f(z) to the multiplicative action z->z^d. The relation between this construction and the Bottcher coordinate in complex polynomial dynamics is similar to the relation between the complex uniformization of elliptic curves, and Tate's p-adic uniformization. Specifically, this biholomorphism is Galois equivariant, reducing certain questions about the Galois theory of preimages by f to questions about multiplicative Kummer theory.

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arXiv2011

Canonical heights for Henon maps

We consider the arithmetic of Henon maps f(x, y)=(ay, x+f(y)) defined over number fields and function fields, usually with the restriction that a=1. We prove a result on the variation of Kawaguchi's canonical height in families of Henon maps, and derive from this a specialization theorem, showing that the set of parameters above which a given non-periodic point becomes periodic is a set of bounded height. Proving this involves showing that the only points of canonical height zero for a Henon map over a function field are those which are periodic (in the non-isotrivial case). In the case of quadratic Henon maps f(x, y)=(y, x+y^2+b), we obtain a stronger result, bounding the canonical height below by a quantity which grows linearly in the height of b, once the number of places of bad reduction is fixed. Finally, we propose a conjecture regarding rational periodic points for quadratic Henon maps defined over the rational numbers, namely that they can only have period 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, or 8. We check this conjecture for the first million values of the parameter b, ordered by height.

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arXiv2011

Cubic polynomials with periodic cycles of a specified multiplier

We consider cubic polynomials f(z)=z^3+az+b defined over the function field C(L), with a marked point of period N and multiplier L. In the case N=1, there are infinitely many such objects, and in the case N>2, only finitely many. The case N=2 has particularly rich structure, and we are able to describe all such cubic polynomials defined over the field obtained by adjoining to C the mth roots of L, for all L.

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arXiv2011

Algebraic divisibility sequences over function fields

We study the existence of primes and of primitive divisors in classical divisibility sequences defined over function fields. Under various hypotheses, we prove that Lucas sequences and elliptic divisibility sequences over function fields defined over number fields contain infinitely many irreducible elements. We also prove that an elliptic divisibility sequence over a function field has only finitely many terms lacking a primitive divisor.

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arXiv2011

Variation of the canonical height for a family of polynomials

A theorem of Tate asserts that, for an elliptic surface E/X defined over a number field k, and a section P of E, there exists a divisor D on X such that the canonical height of the specialization of P to the fibre above t differs from the height of t relative to D by at most a bounded amount. We prove the analogous statement for a one-parameter family of polynomial dynamical systems. Moreover, we compare, at each place of k, the local canonical height with the local contribution to the height relative to D, and show that the difference is analytic near the support of D, a result which is analogous to results of Silverman in the elliptic surface context.

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arXiv2011

A finiteness result for post-critically finite polynomials

We show that the set of complex points in the moduli space of polynomials of degree d corresponding to post-critically finite polynomials is a set of algebraic points of bounded height. It follows that for any B, the set of conjugacy classes of post-critically finite polynomials of degree d with coefficients of algebraic degree at most B is a finite and effectively computable set. In the case d=3 and B=1 we perform this computation. The proof of the main result comes down to finding a relation between the "naive" height on the moduli space, and Silverman's critical height.

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arXiv2010

On Poonen's Conjecture Concerning Rational Preperiodic Points of Quadratic Maps

The purpose of this note is give some evidence in support of conjectures of Poonen, and Morton and Silverman, on the periods of rational numbers under the iteration of quadratic polynomials. In particular, Poonen conjectured that there are at most 9 periodic points defined over the rational numbers for any map in the family x^2 + c for c rational. We verify this conjecture for c values up to height 10^8. For quadratic number fields, we provide evidence that the upper bound on the exact period of Q-rational periodic point is 6.

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arXiv2008

Specializations of elliptic surfaces, and divisibility in the Mordell-Weil group

Let $E$ be an elliptic surface over the curve $C$, defined over a number field $k$, let $P$ be a section of $E$, and let $\ell$ be a rational prime. For any non-singular fibre $E_t$, we bound the number of points $Q$ on $E_t$ of (algebraic) degree at most $D$ over $k$, such that $\ell^n Q=P_t$, for some $n\geq 1$. The bound obtained depends only on $\ell$, the surface and section in question, $D$, and the degree $[k(t):k]$; that is, it is uniform across all fibres of bounded degree. In special cases, we obtain more specific, in some instances sharp, bounds.

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arXiv2008

Multiples of integral points on elliptic curves

If $E$ is a minimal elliptic curve defined over $\ZZ$, we obtain a bound $C$, depending only on the global Tamagawa number of $E$, such that for any point $P\in E(\QQ)$, $nP$ is integral for at most one value of $n>C$. As a corollary, we show that if $E/\QQ$ is a fixed elliptic curve, then for all twists $E'$ of $E$ of sufficient height, and all torsion-free, rank-one subgroups $Γ\subseteq E'(\QQ)$, $Γ$ contains at most 6 integral points. Explicit computations for congruent number curves are included.

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arXiv2008

Uniform Bounds on Pre-Images under Quadratic Dynamical Systems

For any elements b,c of a number field K, let G(b,c) denote the backwards orbit of b under the map f_c: C-->C given by f_c(x)=x^2+c. We prove an upper bound on the number of elements of G(b,c) whose degree over K is at most some constant B. This bound depends only on b, [K:Q], and B, and is valid for all b outside an explicit finite set. We also show that, for any N>3 and any b in K outside a finite set, there are only finitely many pairs of complex numbers (y,c) for which [K(y,c):K]<2^(N-3) and the value of the N-th iterate of f_c(x) at x=y is b. Moreover, the bound 2^(N-3) in this result is optimal.

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