Assuming Lang's conjectured lower bound on the heights of non-torsion points on an elliptic curve, we show that there exists an absolute constant $C$ such that for any elliptic curve $E/\mathbb{Q}$ and non-torsion point $P\,\in \,E\left( \mathbb{Q} \right)$, there is at most one integral multiple $\left[ n \right]P$ such that $n\,>\,C$. The proof is a modification of a proof of Ingram giving an unconditional, but not uniform, bound. The new ingredient is a collection of explicit formulæ for the sequence $v\left( {{\Psi }_{n}} \right)$ of valuations of the division polynomials. For $P$ of non-singular reduction, such sequences are already well described in most cases, but for $P$ of singular reduction, we are led to define a new class of sequences called elliptic troublemaker sequences, which measure the failure of the Néron local height to be quadratic. As a corollary in the spirit of a conjecture of Lang and Hall, we obtain a uniform upper bound on $\widehat{h}\left( P \right)/h\left( E \right)$ for integer points having two large integral multiples.

In this paper we prove a commutative algebraic extension of a generalized Skolem–Mahler– Lech theorem. Let $A$ be a finitely generated commutative $K$–algebra over a field of characteristic 0, and let $\sigma$ be a $K$–algebra automorphism of $A$. Given ideals $I$ and $J$ of $A$, we show that the set $S$ of integers $m$ such that ${{\sigma }^{m}}(I)\,\supseteq \,J$ is a finite union of complete doubly infinite arithmetic progressions in $m$, up to the addition of a finite set. Alternatively, this result states that for an affine scheme $X$ of finite type over $K$, an automorphism $\sigma \,\in \,\text{Au}{{\text{t}}_{k}}(X)$, and $Y$ and $Z$ any two closed subschemes of $X$, the set of integers $m$ with ${{\sigma }^{m}}(Z)\,\subseteq \,Y$ is as above. We present examples showing that this result may fail to hold if the affine scheme $X$ is not of finite type, or if $X$ is of finite type but the field $K$ has positive characteristic.

The Skolem–Mahler–Lech theorem states that if $f(n)$ is a sequence given by a linear recurrence over a field of characteristic 0, then the set of m such that $f(m)$ is equal to 0 is the union of a finite number of arithmetic progressions in $m\ge 0$ and a finite set. We prove that if X is a subvariety of an affine variety Y over a field of characteristic 0 and q is a point in Y, and $\sigma$ is an automorphism of Y, then the set of m such that $\sigma^m({\bf q})$ lies in X is a union of a finite number of complete doubly-infinite arithmetic progressions and a finite set. We show that this is a generalisation of the Skolem–Mahler–Lech theorem.