On degrees of birational mappings (Q2191297)

Let \(f\) be a birational transformation of a complex projective variety. The degree of \(f\) is defined once an ample line bundle is fixed. Very little is known about the degree sequence \((\mathrm{deg}(f^n))_{n\in \mathbb{N}}\). Some fundamental properties of these sequences are established in this paper. The first theorem says that if the degree sequence is bounded along a subsequence then it is bounded. This was proved for automorphisms of affine spaces in [\textit{C. Urech}, Math. Res. Lett. 25, No. 1, 291--308 (2018; Zbl 1393.37111)]. As the authors point out in the paper under review, Urech's proof actually works for all automorphisms of affine varieties if written in an intrinsic way. For general birational transformations the authors use a p-adic method previously introduced in their paper [\textit{S. Cantat} and \textit{J. Xie}, Acta Math. 220, No. 2, 239--295 (2018; Zbl 1453.14042)]. The second main theorem of the paper under review says that if the degree sequence is not bounded then it is bounded below by the inverse of the diagonal Ackermann function which is a function that slowly grows to infinty.