Kawaguchi-Silverman conjecture for endomorphisms on rationally connected varieties admitting an int-amplified endomorphism (Q2122077)

Let \(X\) be projective manifold defined over an algebraically closed field of characteristic zero. An endomorphism is a finite map \(f: X \rightarrow X\) of degree at least two. The (first) dynamical degree \(\delta_f\) measures the complexity of the dynamical system defined by \(f\), it can be computed as the spectral radius of the linear map \(f^* : N^1(X) \rightarrow N^1(X)\). If the manifold \(X\) is defined over \(\overline{\mathbb Q}\) and \(x \in X(\overline{\mathbb Q})\) is a point, the arithmetic degree \(\alpha_f(x)\) measures the arithmetic complexity of the orbit via some Weil height function [\textit{J. H. Silverman}, Ergodic Theory Dyn. Syst. 34, No. 2, 647--678 (2014; Zbl 1372.37093)]. \textit{S. Kawaguchi} and \textit{J. H. Silverman} [Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 368, No. 7, 5009--5035 (2016; Zbl 1391.37078)] have shown that the arithmetic degree is equal to the absolute value of one of the eigenvalues of \(f^*\), so one has an inequality \(\alpha_f(x) \leq \delta_f\). They also conjectured that if the \(f\)-orbit of the point is Zariski dense, one has equality \(\alpha_f(x) = \delta_f\). In this paper the authors prove the Kawaguchi-Silverman conjecture for rationally connected projective manifolds under the assumption that the endomorphism \(f\) is int-amplified, i.e. there exists an ample divisor \(H\) such that \(f^* H - H\) is ample. From the point of view of the classification of projective varieties admitting an endomorphism, rationally connected manifolds are the most relevant case for this problem. The assumption that the endomorphism is int-amplified is more restrictive: it implies that the manifold \(X\) has only finitely many \(K_X\)-negative extremal rays and assures that one can run an MMP that is equivariant with respect to \(f\). In [``Kawaguchi-Silverman conjecture for surjective endomorphisms'', preprint, \url{arXiv:1908.01605}] this allowed \textit{S. Meng} and \textit{D.-Q. Zhang} to prove the Kawaguchi-Silverman conjecture for threefolds with klt singularities, they also proved the conjecture in any dimension under the assumption that certain Mori fibre spaces do not appear in the \(f\)-equivariant MMP. In this paper, the authors are able to remove the assumption of Meng and Zhang by setting up a sophisticated argument by induction on the dimension and the Picard number of the variety. A crucial point is to prove that for certain Mori fibre spaces \(X \rightarrow Y\) in the MMP the base is a \(Q\)-abelian variety (i.e. a quotient \(A \rightarrow Y\) of an abelian variety \(A\) that does not ramify in codimension one) and that the quotient map \(A \rightarrow Y\) induces a map from an étale cover of \(X\) to an abelian variety. Since \(X\) is assumed to be smooth and rationally connected, such a map can not exist.