Dynamics of the \(a\)-map over residually finite Dedekind domains and applications (Q2315981)

The authors are interested in the dynamics of the map \(x \mapsto ax\) over the quotient ring \(\mathfrak{D}/n\) where \(\mathfrak{D}\) is a residually finite Dedekind domain, \(a\in \mathfrak{D}\) (nonzero), and \(n\) is a nonzero ideal of \(\mathfrak{D}\). Formally, the \(a\)-map, \(\Gamma_{a,n}:\ \mathfrak{D}/n \mapsto \mathfrak{D}/n\) by \(x \mapsto \Psi_n(a)\cdot x\) where \(\Psi_n(a): \mathfrak{D}\mapsto \mathfrak{D}/n\) is the canonical epimorphism \(\Psi_n(x)=x+ n\). The dynamics of a map \(f\) over a finite set \(X\) can be described through its associated functional graph \(G(f/X)\) whose vertices are the elements of \(X\) and (directed) edges of the form \((x, f(x))\) for \(x \in X\). The authors' main result is a complete description of the functional graph \(G(\Gamma_{a,n})\) up to isomorphism. This extends several results in the literature. The authors then show several applications of the main result and provide examples and figures to help illustrating the theory.