We consider the arithmetic of Henon maps f(x, y)=(ay, x+f(y)) defined over number fields and function fields, usually with the restriction that a=1. We prove a result on the variation of Kawaguchi's canonical height in families of Henon maps, and derive from this a specialization theorem, showing that the set of parameters above which a given non-periodic point becomes periodic is a set of bounded height. Proving this involves showing that the only points of canonical height zero for a Henon map over a function field are those which are periodic (in the non-isotrivial case). In the case of quadratic Henon maps f(x, y)=(y, x+y^2+b), we obtain a stronger result, bounding the canonical height below by a quantity which grows linearly in the height of b, once the number of places of bad reduction is fixed. Finally, we propose a conjecture regarding rational periodic points for quadratic Henon maps defined over the rational numbers, namely that they can only have period 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, or 8. We check this conjecture for the first million values of the parameter b, ordered by height.
In this paper we study arithmetic properties of a one-parameter family ${\mathbf H}$ of Hénon maps over the affine line. Given a family of initial points ${\mathbf P}$ satisfying a natural condition, we show the height function $h_{\mathbf P}$ associated to ${\mathbf H}$ and ${\mathbf P}$ is the restriction of the height function associated to a semipositive adelically metrized line bundle on projective line. We then show various local properties of $h_{\mathbf P}$. Next we consider the set $Σ({\mathbf P})$ consisting of periodic parameter values, and study when $Σ({\mathbf P})$ is an infinite…
We show that the canonical height function defined by Silverman does not have the Northcott finiteness property in general. We develop a new canonical height function for monomial maps. In certain cases, this new canonical height function has nice properties.
A system of transformations is associated to a rational point on an elliptic curve. The sequence entropy is connected to the canonical height, and in some cases there is a canonically defined quotient system whose entropy is the canonical height and for which the fibre entropy is accounted for by local heights at primes of bad reduction. The proofs use transcendence theory and a strong form of Siegel's theorem. We go on to extend these ideas to the morphic heights of Call and Goldstine.
We prove a lower bound on the canonical height associated to polynomials over number fields evaluated at points with infinite forward orbit. The lower bound depends only on the degree of the polynomial, the degree of the number field, and the number of places of bad reduction.
We give an algorithm which requires no integer factorization for computing the canonical height of a point in $\mathbb{P}^1(\mathbb{Q})$ relative to a morphism $ϕ: \mathbb{P}_{\mathbb{Q}}^1 \rightarrow \mathbb{P}_{\mathbb{Q}}^1$ of degree $d \geq 2$.
We construct height functions defined stochastically on projective varieties equipped with endomorphisms, and we prove that these functions satisfy analogs of the usual properties of canonical heights. Moreover, we give a dynamical interpretation of the kernel of these stochastic height functions, and in the case of the projective line, we relate the size of this kernel to the Julia sets of the original maps. Finally, as an application, we establish the finiteness of some generalized Zsigmondy sets over global fields.
We study canonical heights for plane polynomial mappings of small topological degree. In particular, we prove that for points of canonical height zero, the arithmetic degree is bounded by the topological degree and hence strictly smaller than the first dynamical degree. The proof uses the existence, proved by Favre and the first author, of certain compactifications of the plane adapted to the dynamics.
Call and Silverman introduced the canonical height associated to a polarized dynamical system, that is, an endomorphism of a projective variety and an ample line bundle which pulls back to a tensor power of itself. They also presented an asymptotic for the variation of this height in a family over a one-dimensional base in terms of the height on the generic fibre and the height of the parameter. Here we improve this asymptotic, saving a power in the error term. As a corollary, we give an explicit bound on the height of parameters at which the dynamical system specialized to a finite orbit, in …
Let phi(z) be a polynomial of degree at least 2 with coefficients in a number field K. Iterating phi gives rise to a dynamical system and a corresponding canonical height function, as defined by Call and Silverman. We prove a simple product formula relating the transfinite diameters of the filled Julia sets of phi over various completions of K, and we apply this formula to give a generalization of Bilu's equidistribution theorem for sequences of points whose canonical heights tend to zero.
Let f : X --> X be an endomorphism of a normal projective variety defined over a global field K, and let D_0,D_1,D_2,... be divisor classes that form a Jordan block with eigenvalue b for the action of f^* on Pic(X) tensored with C. We construct appropriately normalized canonical heights h_0,h_1,h_2,... associated to D_0,D_1,D_2,... and satisfying Jordan transformation formulas h_k(f(x)) = b h_k(x) + h_{k-1}(x). As an application, we prove that for every x in X, the arithmetic degree a_f(x) exists, is an algebraic integer, and takes on only finitely many values as x varies over X. Further, if X…
A theorem of Tate asserts that, for an elliptic surface E/X defined over a number field k, and a section P of E, there exists a divisor D on X such that the canonical height of the specialization of P to the fibre above t differs from the height of t relative to D by at most a bounded amount. We prove the analogous statement for a one-parameter family of polynomial dynamical systems. Moreover, we compare, at each place of k, the local canonical height with the local contribution to the height relative to D, and show that the difference is analytic near the support of D, a result which is analo…
We prove that if $f$ is a polynomial over a number field $K$ with a finite superattracting periodic point and a non-archimedean place of bad reduction, then there is an $ε>0$ such that only finitely many $P\in K^{\text{ab}}$ have canonical height less than $ε$ with respect to $f$. The key ingredient is the geometry of the filled Julia set at a place of bad reduction. We also prove a conditional uniform boundedness result for the $K$-rational preperiodic points of such polynomials, as well as a uniform lower bound on the canonical height of non-preperiodic points in $K$. We further prove uncond…
Let F and G be morphisms of degree at least 2 from P^N to P^N that are defined over the algebraic closure of Q. We define the arithmetic distance d(F,G) between F and G to be the supremum over all algebraic points P of |h_F(P)-h_G(P)|, where h_F and h_G are the canonical heights associated to the morphisms F and G, respectively. We prove comparison theorems relating d(F,G) to more naive height functions and show that for a fixed G, the set of F satisfying d(F,G) < B is a set of bounded height. In particular, there are only finitely many such F defined over any given number field.
Let F : P^N --> P^N be a dominant rational map. The dynamical degree of F is the quantity d_F = lim (deg F^n)^(1/n). When F is defined over a number field, we define the arithmetic degree of an algebraic point P to be a_F(P) = limsup h(F^n(P))^(1/n) and the canonical height of P to be h_F(P) = limsup h(F^n(P))/n^k d_F^n for an appropriately chosen integer k = k_F. In this article we prove some elementary relations and make some deep conjectures relating d_F, a_F(P), and h_F(P). We prove our conjectures for monomial maps.
Let K be a function field in one variable over an arbitrary field F. Given a rational function f(z) in K(z) of degree at least two, the associated canonical height on the projective line was defined by Call and Silverman. The preperiodic points of f all have canonical height zero; conversely, if F is a finite field, then every point of canonical height zero is preperiodic. However, if F is an infinite field, then there may be non-preperiodic points of canonical height zero. In this paper, we show that for polynomial f, such points exist only if f is isotrivial. In fact, such K-rational points …
We prove, for the canonical height defined by Silverman [15] on monomial maps, the existence of effective lower bounds for heights of points with Zariski dense orbit, for cases with endomorphisms induced by matrices with real Jordan form.
Let $π: E\to B$ be an elliptic surface defined over a number field $K$, where $B$ is a smooth projective curve, and let $P: B \to E$ be a section defined over $K$ with canonical height $\hat{h}_E(P)\not=0$. In this article, we show that the function $t \mapsto \hat{h}_{E_t}(P_t)$ on $B(\overline{K})$ is the height induced from an adelically metrized line bundle with non-negative curvature on $B$. Applying theorems of Thuillier and Yuan, we obtain the equidistribution of points $t \in B(\overline{K})$ where $P_t$ is torsion, and we give an explicit description of the limiting distribution on $B…
Given an endomorphism f of projective space, we exhibit explicit bounds on the difference between the naive height of a divisor and its canonical height relative to f.
Let $f: \mathbb{P}^1\to \mathbb{P}^1$ be a map of degree $>1$ defined over a function field $k = K(X)$, where $K$ is a number field and $X$ is a projective curve over $K$. For each point $a \in \mathbb{P}^1(k)$ satisfying a dynamical stability condition, we prove that the Call-Silverman canonical height for specialization $f_t$ at point $a_t$, for $t \in X(\bar{\mathbb{Q}})$ outside a finite set, induces a Weil height on the curve $X$; i.e., we prove the existence of a $\mathbb{Q}$-divisor $D = D_{f,a}$ on $X$ so that the function $t\mapsto \hat{h}_{f_t}(a_t) - h_D(t)$ is bounded on $X(\bar{\m…
We introduce a new canonical height function for Jordan blocks of small eigenvalues for endomorphisms on smooth projective varieties over a number field. We prove that under an assumption on the eigenvalues of the endomorphism on the group of divisors modulo numerical equivalence, the arithmetic degree at a rational point is equal to one if and only if it is preperiodic under the endomorphism.
We study families of varieties endowed with polarized canonical eigensystems of several maps, inducing canonical heights on the dominating variety as well as on the "good" fibers of the family. We show explicitely the dependence on the parameter for global and local canonical heights defined by Kawaguchi when the fibers change, extending previous works of J. Silverman and others. Finally, fixing an absolute value $v \in K$ and a variety $V/K$, we descript the Kawaguchi`s canonical local height $\hatλ_{V,E,\mathcal{Q},}(.,v)$ as an intersection number, provided that the polarized system $(V,\ma…
The canonical height associated to a polarized endomporhism of a projective variety, constructed by Call and Silverman and generalizing the Néron-Tate height on a polarized Abelian variety, plays an important role in the arithmetic theory of dynamical systems. We generalize this construction to polarized correspondences, prove various fundamental properties, and show how the global canonical height decomposes as an integral of a local height over the space of absolute values on the algebraic closure of the field of definition.
We define an "ample canonical height" for an endomorphism on a projective variety, which is essentially a generalization of the canonical heights for polarized endomorphisms introduced by Call--Silverman. We formulate a dynamical analogue of the Northcott finiteness theorem for ample canonical heights as a conjecture, and prove it for endomorphisms on varieties of small Picard numbers, abelian varieties, and surfaces. As applications, for the endomorphisms which satisfy the conjecture, we show the non-density of the set of preperiodic points over a fixed number field, and obtain a dynamical Mo…
Let K be a number field, X/K a curve, and f/X a family of endomorphisms of projective N-space. It follows from a result of Call and Silverman that the canonical height associated to the family f, evaluated along a section, differs from a Weil height on the base by little-o of a Weil height. In the case where f is a family with an invariant hyperplane, whose restriction to this invariant hyperplane is isotrivial, we improve this by showing that the canonical height along a section differs from a Weil height on the base by a bounded amount.
We present a dynamical proof of the well-known fact that the Neron-Tate canonical height (and its local counterpart) takes rational values at points of an elliptic curve over a function field k of transcendence degree 1 over an algebraically closed field K of characteristic 0. More generally, we investigate the mechanism for which the local canonical height for a rational function f defined over k can take irrational values (at points in a local completion of k), providing examples in all degrees greater than 1. Building on Kiwi's classification of non-archimedean Julia sets for quadratic maps…
Let K be a function field, let f be a rational function of degree d at least 2 defined over K, and suppose that f is not isotrivial. In this paper, we show that a point P in P^1(Kbar) has f-canonical height zero if and only if P is preperiodic for f. This answers affirmatively a question of Szpiro and Tucker, and generalizes a recent result of Benedetto from polynomials to rational functions. We actually prove the following stronger result, which is a variant of the Northcott finiteness principle: there exists epsilon > 0 such that the set of points P in P^1(K) with f-canonical height at most …
We compute a lower bound of the canonical height on quadratic twists of certain elliptic curves. Also we show a simple method for constructing families of quadratic twists with an explicit rational point. % from cubic polynomials. Using the above lower bound, we show that the explicit rational point is primitive as an element of the Mordell--Weil group.
Let $d\ge 2$ be an integer, let $c(t)$ be any rational map, and let $f_t(z) := (z^d+t)/z$ be a family of rational maps indexed by t. For each algebraic number $t$, we let $h_{f_t}(c(t))$ be the canonical height of $c(t)$ with respect to the rational map $f_t$. We prove that the map $H(t):=h_{f_t}(c(t))$ (as $t$ varies among the algebraic numbers) is a Weil height.
Given a family of abelian varieties over a quasiprojective smooth curve $T^0$ over a global field and a point $P$ on the generic fiber, we show that the Néron-Tate canonical height $h_{X_t}(P_t)$ of $P_t$ along each fiber is exactly equal to a Weil height $h_{\overline M}(t)$ given by an adelic metrized line bundle $\overline M$ on the unique smooth projective curve $T$ containing $T^0$. As a consequence, we show that a conjecture of Zhang on the finiteness of small-height specializations of $P$ is equivalent to $\overline M$ being big.
The Kawaguchi--Silverman conjecture predicts that if $f\colon X \dashrightarrow X$ is a dominant rational-self map of a projective variety over $\overline{\mathbb{Q}}$, and $P$ is a $\overline{\mathbb{Q}}$-point of $X$ with Zariski-dense orbit, then the dynamical and arithmetic degrees of $f$ coincide: $λ_1(f) = α_f(P)$. We prove this conjecture in several higher-dimensional settings, including all endomorphisms of non-uniruled smooth projective threefolds with degree larger than $1$, and all endomorphisms of hyper-Kähler varieties in any dimension. In the latter case, we construct a canonical…
We adopt a statistical point of view on the conjecture of Lang which predicts a lower bound for the canonical height of non-torsion rational points on elliptic curves defined over $\mathbb{Q}$. More specifically, we prove that among the family of all elliptic curves defined over $\mathbb{Q}$ and having positive rank, there is a density one subfamily of curves which satisfy a strong form of Lang's conjecture.
We introduce an algorithm that can be used to compute the canonical height of a point on an elliptic curve over the rationals in quasi-linear time. As in most previous algorithms, we decompose the difference between the canonical and the naive height into an archimedean and a non-archimedean term. Our main contribution is an algorithm for the computation of the non-archimedean term that requires no integer factorization and runs in quasi-linear time.
We define a new canonical height pairing on the rational points of elliptic curves over global function fields which takes values in the multiplicative group of a completion of the function field. This height serves as an analogue of both the classical Neron-Tate height and analytic p-adic heights. Our main result is that under some general hypotheses this pairing is non-degenerate.
This paper is the sequel of our paper "Arithmetic height functions over finitely generated fields" (cf. math.NT/9809016). In this paper, we define the canonical height of subvarieties of an abelian variety over a finitely generated field over Q. We also prove that the canonical height of a subvariety is zero if and only if it is a translation of an abelian subvariety by a torsion point.
We construct canonical heights of subvarieties for dynamical system of several morphisms associated with line bundles defined over a number field, and study some of their properties. We also construct invariant currents for such systems over $\mathbb{C}$.
In a recent breakthrough, Dimitrov 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 $c\in\mathbb{R}\smallsetminus\{-2\}$, 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 lik…
Given two rational maps $φ$ and $ψ$ on $\PP^1$ of degree at least two, we study a symmetric, nonnegative-real-valued pairing $<φ,ψ>$ which is closely related to the canonical height functions $h_φ$ and $h_ψ$ associated to these maps. Our main results show a strong connection between the value of $<φ,ψ>$ and the canonical heights of points which are small with respect to at least one of the two maps $φ$ and $ψ$. Several necessary and sufficient conditions are given for the vanishing of $<φ,ψ>$. We give an explicit upper bound on the difference between the canonical height $h_ψ$ and the standard…
We discuss a new method to compute the canonical height of an algebraic point on a hyperelliptic jacobian over a number field. The method does not require any geometrical models, neither $p$-adic nor complex analytic ones. In the case of genus 2 we also present a version that requires no factorisation at all. The method is based on a recurrence relation for the `division polynomials' associated to hyperelliptic jacobians, and a diophantine approximation result due to Faltings.
We study the interplay between canonical heights and endomorphisms of an abelian variety $A$ over a number field $k$. In particular we show that whenever the ring of endomorphisms defined over $k$ is strictly larger than $\Z$ there will be $\Q$-linear relations among the values of a canonical height-pairing evaluated at a basis modulo torsion of $A(k)$.
An expository lecture on the analogy between the subjects of the title. Delivered at the International Conference on Number Theory at the Korea Institute for Advanced Study in December 1997.
Denis associated to each Drinfeld module M over a global function function field L a canonical height function, which plays a role analogous to that of the Neron-Tate height in the context of elliptic curves. We prove that there exist constants ε>0 and C, depending only on the number of places at which M has bad reduction, such that either x in M is a torsion point of bounded order, or else the canonical height of x is bound below by εmax{h(j_M), deg(D_M)}, where j_M is a certain invariant of the isomorphism class of M, and D_M is the minimal discriminant of M. As an application, we make some …
Let A be an abelian variety defined over a number field K, and consider the canonical height function attached to a symmetric ample line bundle L on A. We prove that there is a positive lower bound C (depending on A, K, and L) for the canonical height of non-torsion points on A defined over the maximal abelian extension K^ab of K.
For several applications in the arithmetic of abelian varieties it is important to compute canonical heights. Following Faltings and Hriljac, we show how the canonical height on the Jacobian of a smooth projective curve can be computed using arithmetic intersection theory on a regular model of the curve in practice. In the case of hyperelliptic curves we present a complete algorithm that has been implemented in Magma. Several examples are computed and the behavior of the running time is discussed.
Let $f: \mathbb{A}^2 \to \mathbb{A}^2$ be a polynomial automorphism of dynamical degree $δ\geq 2$ over a number field $K$. (This is equivalent to say that $f$ is a polynomial automorphism that is not triangularizable.) Then we construct canonical height functions defined on $\mathbb{A}^2(\bar{K})$ associated with $f$. These functions satisfy the Northcott finiteness property, and an $\bar{K}$-valued point on $\mathbb{A}^2(\bar{K})$ is $f$-periodic if and only if its height is zero. As an application of canonical height functions, we give an estimate on the number of points with bounded height …
Let E/K be an ellptic curve defined over a number field, let h be the canonical height on E, and let K^ab be the maximal abelian extension of K. Extending work of M. Baker, we prove that there is a positive constant C(E/K) so that every nontorsion point P in E(K^ab) satisfies h(P) > C(E/K).
Given an elliptic curve E over a function field K=Q(T_1,...,T_n), we study the behavior of the canonical height ^h_(E_w) of the specialized elliptic curve E_w with respect to the height of w in Q^n. In this paper, we prove that there exists a uniform non-zero lower bound for the average of the quotient ^h_(E_w)(P_w)/h(w) for all non-torsion P in E(K).
Let X be a smooth projective curve of positive genus defined over a number field K. Assume given a Galois covering map x from X to the projective line over K and a place v of K. We introduce a local canonical height on the set of K_v-valued points of X associated to x as an integral with logarithmic integrand, generalizing Tate's local Neron function on an elliptic curve. The resulting global height can be viewed as a 'Mahler measure' associated to x. We prove that the local canonical height can be obtained by averaging, and taking a limit, over divisors of higher order Weierstrass points on X…
An approach to the calculation of local canonical morphic heights is described, motivated by the analogy between the classical height in Diophantine geometry and entropy in algebraic dynamics. We consider cases where the local morphic height is expressed as an integral average of the logarithmic distance to the closure of the periodic points of the underlying morphism. The results may be thought of as a kind of morphic Jensen formula.
