A finiteness theorem for specializations of dynatomic polynomials

Abstract: Let

t

and

x

be indeterminates, let

p h i (x) = x^{2} + t i n m a t h b b Q (t) [x]

, and for every positive integer

n

let

P h i_{n} (t, x)

denote the

n^{e x t t h}

dynatomic polynomial of

p h i

. Let

G_{n}

be the Galois group of

P h i_{n}

over the function field

m a t h b b Q (t)

, and for

c i n m a t h b b Q

let

G_{n, c}

be the Galois group of the specialized polynomial

P h i_{n} (c, x)

. It follows from Hilbert's irreducibility theorem that for fixed

n

we have

G_{n} c o n g G_{n, c}

for every

c

outside a thin set

E_{n} s u b s e t m a t h b b Q

. By earlier work of Morton (for

n = 3

) and the present author (for

n = 4

), it is known that

E_{n}

is infinite if

n l e 4

. In contrast, we show here that

E_{n}

is finite if

n i n 5, 6, 7, 9

. As an application of this result we show that, for these values of

n

, the following holds with at most finitely many exceptions: for every

c i n m a t h b b Q

, more than

81 %

of prime numbers

p

have the property that the polynomial

x^{2} + c

does not have a point of period

n

in the

p

-adic field

m a t h b b Q_{p}

.

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