Periods of rational maps modulo primes


Abstract in English

Let $K$ be a number field, let $phi in K(t)$ be a rational map of degree at least 2, and let $alpha, beta in K$. We show that if $alpha$ is not in the forward orbit of $beta$, then there is a positive proportion of primes ${mathfrak p}$ of $K$ such that $alpha mod {mathfrak p}$ is not in the forward orbit of $beta mod {mathfrak p}$. Moreover, we show that a similar result holds for several maps and several points. We also present heuristic and numerical evidence that a higher dimensional analog of this result is unlikely to be true if we replace $alpha$ by a hypersurface, such as the ramification locus of a morphism $phi : {mathbb P}^{n} to {mathbb P}^{n}$.

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