We study the dynamical properties of a large class of rational maps with exactly three ramification points. By constructing families of such maps, we obtain infinitely many conservative maps of degree $d$; this answers a question of Silverman. Rather precise results on the reduction of these maps yield strong information on the rational dynamics.
We consider a large class of so-called dynamical Belyi maps and study the Galois groups of iterates of such maps. From the combinatorial invariants of the maps, we construct a useful presentation of their Galois groups as subgroups of automorphism groups of regular trees, in terms of iterated wreath products. This allows us to study the behavior of the monodromy groups under specialization of the maps, and to derive applications to dynamical sequences.
Riemanns Existence Theorem gives the following bijections: (1) Isomorphism classes of Belyi maps of degree $d$. (2) Equivalence classes of generating systems of degree $d$. (3) Isomorphism classes of dessins denfants with $d$ edges. In previous work, the first author and collaborators exploited the correspondence between Belyi maps and their generating systems to provide explicit equations for two infinite families of dynamical Belyi maps. We complete this picture by describing the dessins denfants for these two families.
We give necessary and sufficient conditions for post-critically finite polynomials to have potential good reduction at a given prime. We also answer in the negative a question posed by Silverman about conservative polynomials. Both proofs rely on dynamical Belyi polynomials as exemplars of PCF (resp. conservative) maps.
We prove existence and nonexistence results for certain differential forms in positive characteristic, called {em good deformation data}. Some of these results are obtained by reduction modulo $p$ of Belyi maps. As an application, we solve the local lifting problem for groups with Sylow $p$-subgroup of order $p$.
The dynamical degree of a dominant rational map $f:mathbb{P}^Nrightarrowmathbb{P}^N$ is the quantity $delta(f):=lim(text{deg} f^n)^{1/n}$. We study the variation of dynamical degrees in 1-parameter families of maps $f_T$. We make a conjecture and ask two questions concerning, respectively, the set of $t$ such that: (1) $delta(f_t)ledelta(f_T)-epsilon$; (2) $delta(f_t)<delta(f_T)$; (3) $delta(f_t)<delta(f_T)$ and $delta(g_t)<delta(g_T)$ for independent families of maps. We give a sufficient condition for our conjecture to hold and prove that it is true for monomial maps. We describe non-trivial families of maps for which our questions have affirmative and negative answers.