Attracting cycles in \(p\)-adic dynamics and height bounds for postcritically finite maps (Q465457)

The present paper studies rational maps of degree at least \(2\) with coefficients in an algebraically closed field. Such a map is called postcritically finite (PCF) if all of its critical points have finite forward orbit under iteration. It follows from a deep result of Thurston (see [\textit{A. Douady} and \textit{J. H. Hubbard}, Acta Math. 171, No. 2, 263--297 (1993; Zbl 0806.30027)], and [\textit{E. Brezin} et al., Conform. Geom. Dyn. 4, No. 3, 35--74 (2000; Zbl 0989.37038)]) that apart from a well-understood class of PCF maps, namely the flexible Lattès maps, there are only finitely many conjugacy classes of rational maps defined over \(\mathbb{C}\) whose critical points have orbits of length less than any given integer. Moreover, all such maps are \(\overline{\mathbb{Q}}\)-rational points in the moduli space \({\mathcal{M}_d}\). However, there are maybe many points in \({\mathcal{M}_d}(\overline{\mathbb{Q}})\) giving conjugacy classes of PCF maps. The main theorem of the present paper precludes this possibility, which thus proves a conjecture of \textit{J. H. Silverman} [Moduli spaces and arithmetic dynamics. Providence, RI: American Mathematical Society (AMS) (2012; Zbl 1247.37004); Conjecture 6.30]. In fact, it is shown that for each \(d\geq 2\), the PCF locus in \({\mathcal{M}_d}(\overline{\mathbb{Q}})\) consists of the flexible Lattès locus and a set of bounded hight. In particular, for any fixed integer \(B\geq 1\), up to change of variables over \(\overline{\mathbb{Q}}\), there are only finitely many PCF rational maps of degree \(d\) that are not flexible Lattès maps but that may be defined over a number field of degree less than \(B\). For the case of a polynomial, such a theorem has been established by \textit{P. Ingram} [Int. Math. Res. Not. 2012, No. 3, 524--543 (2012; Zbl 1333.37029)]. However, it seems that the proofs of Ingram cannot be generalized to rational maps. The authors show their main theorem by fully studying the height of multipliers of periodic cycles. They prove a non-Archimedean version of Fatou's classical result that every attracting cycle of a rational map attracts a critical point. The Berkovich projective line is also used. Let \(K\) be a nonarchimedean field with residue characteristic \(p\) and \(\varphi\in K(z)\) a rational map of degree \(d\geq 2\). In the paper, it is also proved that if \(p>d\) or \(p=0\) then \(\varphi\) has at most \(2d-2\) attracting cycles. This is thus a non-Archimedean analogue of \textit{M. Shishikura}'s classical result over \(\mathbb{C}\) [Ann. Sci. Éc. Norm. Supér. (4) 20, No. 1, 1--29 (1987; Zbl 0621.58030)].