The following theorem, which includes as very special cases results of Jouanolou and Hrushovski on algebraic $D$-varieties on the one hand, and of Cantat on rational dynamics on the other, is established: Working over a field of characteristic zero, suppose $\unicode[STIX]{x1D719}_{1},\unicode[STIX]{x1D719}_{2}:Z\rightarrow X$ are dominant rational maps from an (possibly nonreduced) irreducible scheme $Z$ of finite type to an algebraic variety $X$, with the property that there are infinitely many hypersurfaces on $X$ whose scheme-theoretic inverse images under $\unicode[STIX]{x1D719}_{1}$ and $\unicode[STIX]{x1D719}_{2}$ agree. Then there is a nonconstant rational function $g$ on $X$ such that $g\unicode[STIX]{x1D719}_{1}=g\unicode[STIX]{x1D719}_{2}$. In the case where $Z$ is also reduced, the scheme-theoretic inverse image can be replaced by the proper transform. A partial result is obtained in positive characteristic. Applications include an extension of the Jouanolou–Hrushovski theorem to generalised algebraic ${\mathcal{D}}$-varieties and of Cantat’s theorem to self-correspondences.

Let $X$ be an algebraic curve. We study the problem of parametrizing geometric structures over $X$ which are only generically defined. For example, parametrizing generically defined maps (rational maps) from $X$ to a fixed target scheme $Y$. There are three methods for constructing functors of points for such moduli problems (all originally due to Drinfeld), and we show that the resulting functors are equivalent in the fppf Grothendieck topology. As an application, we obtain three presentations for the category of $D$-modules ‘on’ $B(K)\backslash G(\mathbb{A})/G(\mathbb{O})$, and we combine results about this category coming from the different presentations.