In a recent breakthrough, Dimitrov [Dim] solved the Schinzel–Zassenhaus conjecture. We follow his approach and adapt it to certain dynamical systems arising from polynomials of the form $T^p+c$, where p is a prime number and where the orbit of $0$ is finite. For example, if $p=2$ and $0$ is periodic under $T^2+c$ with $c\in \mathbb {R}$, we prove a lower bound for the local canonical height of a wandering algebraic integer that is inversely proportional to the field degree. From this, we are able to deduce a lower bound for the canonical height of a wandering point that decays like the inverse square of the field degree. For these f, our method has application to the irreducibility of polynomials. Indeed, say y is preperiodic under f but not periodic. Then any iteration of f minus y is irreducible in $\mathbb {Q}(y)[T]$.

DeMarco, Krieger, and Ye conjectured that there is a uniform bound B, depending only on the degree d, so that any pair of holomorphic maps $f, g :{\mathbb {P}}^1\to {\mathbb {P}}^1$ with degree $d$ will either share all of their preperiodic points or have at most $B$ in common. Here we show that this uniform bound holds for a Zariski open and dense set in the space of all pairs, $\mathrm {Rat}_d \times \mathrm {Rat}_d$, for each degree $d\geq 2$. The proof involves a combination of arithmetic intersection theory and complex-dynamical results, especially as developed recently by Gauthier and Vigny, Yuan and Zhang, and Mavraki and Schmidt. In addition, we present alternate proofs of the main results of DeMarco, Krieger, and Ye [Uniform Manin-Mumford for a family of genus 2 curves, Ann. of Math. (2) 191 (2020), 949–1001; Common preperiodic points for quadratic polynomials, J. Mod. Dyn. 18 (2022), 363–413] and of Poineau [Dynamique analytique sur $\mathbb {Z}$ II : Écart uniforme entre Lattès et conjecture de Bogomolov-Fu-Tschinkel, Preprint (2022), arXiv:2207.01574 [math.NT]]. In fact, we prove a generalization of a conjecture of Bogomolov, Fu, and Tschinkel in a mixed setting of dynamical systems and elliptic curves.

Given a set $S=\{x^2+c_1,\dots,x^2+c_s\}$ defined over a field and an infinite sequence $\gamma$ of elements of S, one can associate an arboreal representation to $\gamma$, generalising the case of iterating a single polynomial. We study the probability that a random sequence $\gamma$ produces a “large-image” representation, meaning that infinitely many subquotients in the natural filtration are maximal. We prove that this probability is positive for most sets S defined over $\mathbb{Z}[t]$, and we conjecture a similar positive-probability result for suitable sets over $\mathbb{Q}$. As an application of large-image representations, we prove a density-zero result for the set of prime divisors of some associated quadratic sequences. We also consider the stronger condition of the representation being finite-index, and we classify all S possessing a particular kind of obstruction that generalises the post-critically finite case in single-polynomial iteration.

We show that the dynamical degree of an (i.i.d) random sequence of dominant, rational self-maps on projective space is almost surely constant. We then apply this result to height growth and height counting problems in random orbits.

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.

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 $K(x)^{\ast }/K(x)^{\ast m}$.

The morphism $f\,:\,{{\mathbb{P}}^{N}}\,\to \,{{\mathbb{P}}^{N}}$ is called post-critically finite $\left( \text{PCF} \right)$ if the forward image of the critical locus, under iteration of $f$ , has algebraic support. In the case $N\,=\,1$ , a result of Thurston implies that there are no algebraic families of PCF morphisms, other than a well-understood exceptional class known as the flexible Lattés maps. A related arithmetic result states that the set of PCF morphisms corresponds to a set of bounded height in the moduli space of univariate rational functions. We prove corresponding results for a certain subclass of the regular polynomial endomorphisms of ${{\mathbb{P}}^{N}}$ for any $N$ .

We find all quadratic post-critically finite (PCF) rational functions defined over $\mathbb{Q}$, up to conjugation by elements of $\mathop{\rm PGL}_2(\overline{\mathbb{Q}})$. We describe an algorithm to search for possibly PCF functions. Using the algorithm, we eliminate all but 12 rational functions, all of which are verified to be PCF. We also give a complete description of all possible rational preperiodic structures for quadratic PCF functions defined over $\mathbb{Q}$.