Arithmetic dynamics on smooth cubic surfaces (Q2439664)

This work is concerned with the dynamics of birational automorphisms of smooth cubic surfaces defined over a number field \(K\). The emphasis is on certain reversible maps \(f\) given by the composition of two special types of birational involutions: the Geiser involutions. The composition of these involutions is a group translation, giving integrable systems (they preserve elliptic fibrations of the surface). The author shows that the \(\bar K\)-periodic points of \(f\) (\(\bar K\) being the algebraic closure of \(K\)) are Zariski dense in the surface, and that the \(K\)-periodic points are contained in the union of finitely many elements of the elliptic fibration. The author considers the reduction of these maps modulo \(p\), giving a necessary and sufficient condition for a dynamical local-global property called strong residual periodicity. This property concerns the existence of periodic points of bounded period for all but finitely many \(p\), which are not reductions of periodic points over \(K\), and such that the bound on the period is independent of \(p\). Finally, a dynamical result connected to the Mordell-Weil problem on cubic surfaces is established: under mild conditions, the set of periodic points of \(f\) is finitely generated by tangents and secants.