The pentagram map, introduced by Schwartz [The pentagram map. Exp. Math. 1(1) (1992), 71–81], is a dynamical system on the moduli space of polygons in the projective plane. Its real and complex dynamics have been explored in detail. We study the pentagram map over an arbitrary algebraically closed field of characteristic not equal to 2. We prove that the pentagram map on twisted polygons is a discrete integrable system, in the sense of algebraic complete integrability: the pentagram map is birational to a self-map of a family of abelian varieties. This generalizes Soloviev’s proof of complex integrability [F. Soloviev. Integrability of the pentagram map. Duke Math. J. 162(15) (2013), 2815–2853]. In the course of the proof, we construct the moduli space of twisted n-gons, derive formulas for the pentagram map, and calculate the Lax representation by characteristic-independent methods.

For any algebraically closed field K and any endomorphism f of $\mathbb{P}^1(K)$ of degree at least 2, the automorphisms of f are the Möbius transformations that commute with f, and these form a finite subgroup of $\operatorname{PGL}_2(K)$ . In the moduli space of complex dynamical systems, the locus of maps with nontrivial automorphisms has been studied in detail and there are techniques for constructing maps with prescribed automorphism groups that date back to Klein. We study the corresponding questions when K is the algebraic closure $\bar{\mathbb{F}}_p$ of a finite field. We use the classification of finite subgroups of $\operatorname{PGL}_2(\bar{\mathbb{F}}_p)$ to show that every finite subgroup is realizable as an automorphism group. To construct examples, we use methods from modular invariant theory. Then, we calculate the locus of maps over $\bar{\mathbb{F}}_p$ of degree 2 with nontrivial automorphisms, showing how the geometry and possible automorphism groups depend on the prime p.

We formulate a general question regarding the size of the iterated Galois groups associated with an algebraic dynamical system and then we discuss some special cases of our question. Our main result answers this question for certain split polynomial maps whose coordinates are unicritical polynomials.

Let $f:X\rightarrow X$ be a quasi-finite endomorphism of an algebraic variety $X$ defined over a number field $K$ and fix an initial point $a\in X$. We consider a special case of the Dynamical Mordell–Lang Conjecture, where the subvariety $V$ contains only finitely many periodic points and does not contain any positive-dimensional periodic subvariety. We show that the set $\{n\in \mathbb{Z}_{{\geqslant}0}\mid f^{n}(a)\in V\}$ satisfies a strong gap principle.

Fix $d\geqslant 2$ and a field $k$ such that $\operatorname{char}k\nmid d$. Assume that $k$ contains the $d$th roots of $1$. Then the irreducible components of the curves over $k$ parameterizing preperiodic points of polynomials of the form $z^{d}+c$ are geometrically irreducible and have gonality tending to $\infty$. This implies the function field analogue of the strong uniform boundedness conjecture for preperiodic points of $z^{d}+c$. It also has consequences over number fields: it implies strong uniform boundedness for preperiodic points of bounded eventual period, which in turn reduces the full conjecture for preperiodic points to the conjecture for periodic points. Our proofs involve a novel argument specific to finite fields, in addition to more standard tools such as the Castelnuovo–Severi inequality.

Let $K$ be a finitely generated field of characteristic zero. For fixed $m\geqslant 2$, we study the rational functions $\unicode[STIX]{x1D719}$ defined over $K$ that have a $K$-orbit containing infinitely many distinct $m$-th powers. For $m\geqslant 5$ we show that the only such functions are those of the form $cx^{j}(\unicode[STIX]{x1D713}(x))^{m}$ with $\unicode[STIX]{x1D713}\in K(x)$, and for $m\leqslant 4$ we show that the only additional cases are certain Lattès maps and four families of rational functions whose special properties appear not to have been studied before.

With additional analysis, we show that the index set $\{n\geqslant 0:\unicode[STIX]{x1D719}^{n}(a)\in \unicode[STIX]{x1D706}(\mathbb{P}^{1}(K))\}$ is a union of finitely many arithmetic progressions, where $\unicode[STIX]{x1D719}^{n}$ denotes the $n$-th iterate of $\unicode[STIX]{x1D719}$ and $\unicode[STIX]{x1D706}\in K(x)$ is any map Möbius-conjugate over $K$ to $x^{m}$. When the index set is infinite, we give bounds on the number and moduli of the arithmetic progressions involved. These results are similar in flavor to the dynamical Mordell–Lang conjecture, and motivate a new conjecture on the intersection of an orbit with the value set of a morphism. A key ingredient in our proofs is a study of the curves $y^{m}=\unicode[STIX]{x1D719}^{n}(x)$. We describe all $\unicode[STIX]{x1D719}$ for which these curves have an irreducible component of genus at most 1, and show that such $\unicode[STIX]{x1D719}$ must have two distinct iterates that are equal in $K(x)^{\ast }/K(x)^{\ast m}$.

We show, under some natural restrictions, that orbits of polynomials cannot contain too many elements of small multiplicative order modulo a large prime p. We also show that for all but finitely many initial points either the multiplicative order of this point or the length of the orbit it generates (both modulo a large prime p) is large. The approach is based on the results of Dvornicich and Zannier (Duke Math. J.139 (2007), 527–554) and Ostafe (2017) on roots of unity in polynomial orbits over the algebraic closure of the field of rational numbers.

For a finite field of odd cardinality $q$, we show that the sequence of iterates of $aX^{2}+c$, starting at $0$, always recurs after $O(q/\text{log}\log q)$ steps. For $X^{2}+1$, the same is true for any starting value. We suggest that the traditional “birthday paradox” model is inappropriate for iterates of $X^{3}+c$, when $q$ is 2 mod 3.

We study ultrametric germs in one variable having an irrationally indifferent fixed point at the origin with a prescribed multiplier. We show that for many values of the multiplier, the cycles in the unit disk of the corresponding monic quadratic polynomial are ‘optimal’ in the following sense: they minimize the distance to the origin among cycles of the same minimal period of normalized germs having an irrationally indifferent fixed point at the origin with the same multiplier. We also give examples of multipliers for which the corresponding quadratic polynomial does not have optimal cycles. In those cases we exhibit a higher-degree polynomial such that all of its cycles are optimal. The proof of these results reveals a connection between the geometric location of periodic points of ultrametric power series and the lower ramification numbers of wildly ramified field automorphisms. We also give an extension of Sen’s theorem on wildly ramified field automorphisms, and a characterization of minimally ramified power series in terms of the iterative residue.

Given a finite field of q elements, we consider a trajectory of the map associated with a polynomial ]. Using bounds of character sums, under some mild condition on f, we show that for an appropriate constant C > 0 no N ⩾ Cq½ distinct consecutive elements of such a trajectory are contained in a small subgroup of , improving the trivial lower bound . Using a different technique, we also obtain a similar result for very small values of N. These results are multiplicative analogues of several recently obtained bounds on the length of intervals containing N distinct consecutive elements of such a trajectory.

We recall that a polynomial f(X) ∈ K[X] over a field K is called stable if all its iterates are irreducible over K. We show that almost all monic quadratic polynomials f(X) ∈ ℤ[X] are stable over ℚ. We also show that the presence of squares in so-called critical orbits of a quadratic polynomial f(X) ∈ ℤ[X] can be detected by a finite algorithm; this property is closely related to the stability of f(X). We also prove there are no stable quadratic polynomials over finite fields of characteristic 2 but they exist over some infinite fields of characteristic 2.

Given a finite field 𝔽p={0,…,p−1} of p elements, where p is a prime, we consider the distribution of elements in the orbits of a transformation ξ↦ψ(ξ) associated with a rational function ψ∈𝔽p(X). We use bounds of exponential sums to show that if N≥p1/2+ε for some fixed ε then no N distinct consecutive elements of such an orbit are contained in any short interval, improving the trivial lower bound N on the length of such intervals. In the case of linear fractional functions we use a different approach, based on some results of additive combinatorics due to Bourgain, that gives a nontrivial lower bound for essentially any admissible value of N.