Arithmetic dynamics

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Arithmetic dynamics[1] is a field that amalgamates two areas of mathematics, dynamical systems and number
theory. Classically, discrete dynamics refers to the study of the iteration of self-maps of the complex plane or
real line. Arithmetic dynamics is the study of the number-theoretic properties of integer, rational, p-adic, and/or
algebraic points under repeated application of a polynomial or rational function. A fundamental goal is to
describe arithmetic properties in terms of underlying geometric structures.

Global arithmetic dynamics is the study of analogues of classical Diophantine geometry in the setting of
discrete dynamical systems, while local arithmetic dynamics, also called p-adic or nonarchimedean dynamics,
is an analogue of classical dynamics in which one replaces the complex numbers C by a p-adic field such as
Qp or Cp and studies chaotic behavior and the Fatou and Julia sets.

The following table describes a rough correspondence between Diophantine equations, especially abelian
varieties, and dynamical systems:

Diophantine equations Dynamical systems

Rational and integer points on a variety Rational and integer points in an orbit
Points of finite order on an abelian variety Preperiodic points of a rational function

Contents
1 Definitions and notation from discrete dynamics
2 Number theoretic properties of preperiodic points
3 Integer points in orbits
4 Dynamically defined points lying on subvarieties
5 p-adic dynamics
6 Generalizations
7 Other areas in which number theory and dynamics interact
8 See also
9 Notes and references
10 Further reading
11 External links

Definitions and notation from discrete dynamics

Let S be a set and let F : S S be a map from S to itself. The iterate of F with itself n times is denoted

A point P S is periodic if F(n)(P) = P for some n > 1.

The point is preperiodic if F(k)(P) is periodic for some k 1.

The (forward) orbit of P is the set

Thus P is preperiodic if and only if its orbit OF(P) is finite.

Number theoretic properties of preperiodic points
Let F(x) be a rational function of degree at least two with coefficients in Q. A theorem of Northcott[2] says
that F has only finitely many Q-rational preperiodic points, i.e., F has only finitely many preperiodic points in
P1(Q). The Uniform Boundedness Conjecture[3] of Morton and Silverman says that the number of preperiodic
points of F in P1(Q) is bounded by a constant that depends only on the degree of F.

More generally, let F : PN PN be a morphism of degree at least two defined over a number field K.
Northcott's theorem says that F has only finitely many preperiodic points in PN(K), and the general Uniform
Boundedness Conjecture says that the number of preperiodic points in PN(K) may be bounded solely in terms
of N, the degree of F, and the degree of K over Q.

The Uniform Boundedness Conjecture is not known even for quadratic polynomials Fc(x) = x2 + c over the
rational numbers Q. It is known in this case that Fc(x) cannot have periodic points of period four,[4] five,[5] or
six,[6] although the result for period six is contingent on the validity of the conjecture of Birch and Swinnerton-
Dyer. Poonen has conjectured that Fc(x) cannot have rational periodic points of any period strictly larger than
three.[7]

Integer points in orbits

The orbit of a rational map may contain infinitely many integers. For example, if F(x) is a polynomial with
integer coefficients and if a is an integer, then it is clear that the entire orbit OF(a) consists of integers.
Similarly, if F(x) is a rational map and some iterate F(n)(x) is a polynomial with integer coefficients, then
every n-th entry in the orbit is an integer. An example of this phenomenon is the map F(x) = xd, whose
second iterate is a polynomial. It turns out that this is the only way that an orbit can contain infinitely many
integers.

Theorem.[8] Let F(x) Q(x) be a rational function of degree at least two, and assume that no iterate[9]
of F is a polynomial. Let a Q. Then the orbit OF(a) contains only finitely many integers.

Dynamically defined points lying on subvarieties

There are general conjectures due to Shouwu Zhang[10] and others concerning subvarieties that contain
infinitely many periodic points or that intersect an orbit in infinitely many points. These are dynamical
analogues of, respectively, the ManinMumford conjecture, proven by Raynaud, and the MordellLang
conjecture, proven by Faltings. The following conjectures illustrate the general theory in the case that the
subvariety is a curve.

Conjecture. Let F : PN PN be a morphism and let C PN be an irreducible algebraic curve.

Suppose that there is a point P PN such that C contains infinitely many points in the orbit OF(P).
Then C is periodic for F in the sense that there is some iterate F(k) of F that maps C to itself.

p-adic dynamics
The field of p-adic (or nonarchimedean) dynamics is the study of classical dynamical questions over a field K
that is complete with respect to a nonarchimedean absolute value. Examples of such fields are the field of p-
adic rationals Qp and the completion of its algebraic closure Cp. The metric on K and the standard definition
of equicontinuity leads to the usual definition of the Fatou and Julia sets of a rational map F(x) K(x). There
are many similarities between the complex and the nonarchimedean theories, but also many differences. A
striking difference is that in the nonarchimedean setting, the Fatou set is always nonempty, but the Julia set may
be empty. This is the reverse of what is true over the complex numbers. Nonarchimedean dynamics has been
extended to Berkovich space,[11] which is a compact connected space that contains the totally disconnected
non-locally compact field Cp.

Generalizations
There are natural generalizations of arithmetic dynamics in which Q and Qp are replaced by number fields and
their p-adic completions. Another natural generalization is to replace self-maps of P1 or PN with self-maps
(morphisms) V V of other affine or projective varieties.

Other areas in which number theory and dynamics interact

There are many other problems of a number theoretic nature that appear in the setting of dynamical systems,
including:

dynamics over finite fields.

dynamics over function fields such as C(x).
iteration of formal and p-adic power series.
dynamics on Lie groups.
arithmetic properties of dynamically defined moduli spaces.
equidistribution[12] and invariant measures, especially on p-adic spaces.
dynamics on Drinfeld modules.
number-theoretic iteration problems that are not described by rational maps on varieties, for example, the
Collatz problem.
symbolic codings of dynamical systems based on explicit arithmetic expansions of real numbers.[13]

The Arithmetic Dynamics Reference List gives an extensive list of articles and books covering a wide range of
arithmetical dynamical topics.

See also
Arithmetic geometry
Arithmetic topology
Combinatorics and dynamical systems

Notes and references

1. Silverman, Joseph H. (2007). The Arithmetic of Dynamical Systems. Graduate Texts in Mathematics. 241.
New York: Springer. ISBN 978-0-387-69903-5. MR 2316407 (https://www.ams.org/mathscinet-getitem?
mr=2316407). doi:10.1007/978-0-387-69904-2 (https://doi.org/10.1007%2F978-0-387-69904-2).
2. Northcott, Douglas Geoffrey (1950). "Periodic points on an algebraic variety". Ann. of Math. 51 (1):
167177. MR 0034607 (https://www.ams.org/mathscinet-getitem?mr=0034607). doi:10.2307/1969504 (h
ttps://doi.org/10.2307%2F1969504).
3. Morton, Patrick; Silverman, Joseph H. (1994). "Rational periodic points of rational functions". Internat.
Math. Res. Notices (2): 97110. MR 1264933 (https://www.ams.org/mathscinet-getitem?mr=1264933).
doi:10.1155/S1073792894000127 (https://doi.org/10.1155%2FS1073792894000127).
4. Morton, Patrick (1992). "Arithmetic properties of periodic points of quadratic maps". Acta Arith. 62 (4):
343372. MR 1199627 (https://www.ams.org/mathscinet-getitem?mr=1199627).
5. Flynn, Eugene V.; Poonen, Bjorn; Schaefer, Edward F. (1997). "Cycles of quadratic polynomials and
rational points on a genus-2 curve". Duke Math. J. 90 (3): 435463. MR 1480542 (https://www.ams.org/
mathscinet-getitem?mr=1480542). doi:10.1215/S0012-7094-97-09011-6 (https://doi.org/10.1215%2FS00
12-7094-97-09011-6).
 6. Stoll, Michael (2008). "Rational 6-cycles under iteration of quadratic polynomials". LMS J. Comput.
Math. 11: 367380. MR 2465796 (https://www.ams.org/mathscinet-getitem?mr=2465796).
arXiv:0803.2836 (https://arxiv.org/abs/0803.2836) . doi:10.1112/S1461157000000644 (https://doi.org/1
0.1112%2FS1461157000000644).
7. Poonen, Bjorn (1998). "The classification of rational preperiodic points of quadratic polynomials over Q:
a refined conjecture". Math. Z. 228 (1): 1129. MR 1617987 (https://www.ams.org/mathscinet-getitem?m
r=1617987). doi:10.1007/PL00004405 (https://doi.org/10.1007%2FPL00004405).
8. Silverman, Joseph H. (1993). "Integer points, Diophantine approximation, and iteration of rational
maps". Duke Math. J. 71 (3): 793829. MR 1240603 (https://www.ams.org/mathscinet-getitem?mr=1240
603). doi:10.1215/S0012-7094-93-07129-3 (https://doi.org/10.1215%2FS0012-7094-93-07129-3).
9. An elementary theorem says that if F(x) C(x) and if some iterate of F is a polynomial, then already
the second iterate is a polynomial.
10. Zhang, Shou-Wu (2006). "Distributions in algebraic dynamics". In Yau, Shing Tung. Differential
Geometry: A Tribute to Professor S.-S. Chern. Surveys in Differential Geometry. 10. Somerville, MA:
International Press. pp. 381430. ISBN 978-1-57146-116-2. MR 2408228 (https://www.ams.org/mathsci
net-getitem?mr=2408228). doi:10.4310/SDG.2005.v10.n1.a9 (https://doi.org/10.4310%2FSDG.2005.v1
0.n1.a9).
11. Rumely, Robert; Baker, Matthew (2010). Potential theory and dynamics on the Berkovich projective line.
Mathematical Surveys and Monographs. 159. Providence, RI: American Mathematical Society.
ISBN 978-0-8218-4924-8. MR 2599526 (https://www.ams.org/mathscinet-getitem?mr=2599526).
arXiv:math/0407433 (https://arxiv.org/abs/math/0407433) . doi:10.1090/surv/159 (https://doi.org/10.109
0%2Fsurv%2F159).
12. Granville, Andrew; Rudnick, Zev, eds. (2007). Equidistribution in number theory, an introduction.
NATO Science Series II: Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry. 237. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands.
ISBN 978-1-4020-5403-7. MR 2290490 (https://www.ams.org/mathscinet-getitem?mr=2290490).
doi:10.1007/978-1-4020-5404-4 (https://doi.org/10.1007%2F978-1-4020-5404-4).
13. Sidorov, Nikita (2003). "Arithmetic dynamics". In Bezuglyi, Sergey; Kolyada, Sergiy. Topics in dynamics
and ergodic theory. Survey papers and mini-courses presented at the international conference and US-
Ukrainian workshop on dynamical systems and ergodic theory, Katsiveli, Ukraine, August 2130, 2000.
Lond. Math. Soc. Lect. Note Ser. 310. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 145189. ISBN 0-
521-53365-1. MR 2052279 (https://www.ams.org/mathscinet-getitem?mr=2052279). Zbl 1051.37007 (htt
ps://zbmath.org/?format=complete&q=an:1051.37007).

Further reading
Lecture Notes on Arithmetic Dynamics Arizona Winter School, March 1317, 2010, Joseph H.
Silverman
Chapter 15 of A first course in dynamics: with a panorama of recent developments, Boris Hasselblatt, A.
B. Katok, Cambridge University Press, 2003, ISBN 978-0-521-58750-1

External links
The Arithmetic of Dynamical Systems home page
Arithmetic dynamics bibliography
Analysis and dynamics on the Berkovich projective line
Book review of Joseph H. Silverman's "The Arithmetic of Dynamical Systems", reviewed by Robert L.
Benedetto

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