The profinite polynomial automorphism group (Q2348132)

Let \({\mathbb F}_q\) be the finite field with \(q\) elements and let \(\mathrm{MA}_n({\mathbb F}_q)\) be the monoid (under composition) of the polynomial maps \(F=(F_1,\ldots,F_n)\), \(F_i\in {\mathbb F}_q[X_1,\ldots,X_n]\). Let \(\pi_q:\mathrm{MA}_n({\mathbb F}_q)\to \text{Maps}({\mathbb F}_q^n,{\mathbb F}_q^n)\) be the induced map. In the paper under review the authors consider problems inspired from the paper by one of them, [\textit{S. Maubach}, Serdica Math. J. 27, No. 4, 343--350 (2001; Zbl 0996.14032)]. The idea is to try to determine, in terms of the images in \(\text{Maps}({\mathbb F}_q^n,{\mathbb F}_q^n)\), how far is the tame automorphism group \(\mathrm{TA}_n({\mathbb F}_q)\) of \({\mathbb F}_q[X_1,\ldots,X_n]\) from the whole automorphism group \(GA_n({\mathbb F}_q)\). For this purpose the authors consider the restrictions of the maps \(\pi_{q^m}\) on \(\mathrm{MA}_n({\mathbb F}_q)\) and define the profinite topology on \(\mathrm{MA}_n({\mathbb F}_q)\) where a basis of the open sets is \(\{\ker(\pi_{q^m})\mid m\in{\mathbb N}\}\). Then they embed \(\mathrm{MA}_n({\mathbb F}_q)\) in its completion \(\overleftarrow{\mathrm{MA}}_n({\mathbb F}_q)\) called the profinite polynomial endomorphism monoid over \({\mathbb F}_q\). Similarly the authors define \(\overleftarrow{TA}_n({\mathbb F}_q)\) and \(\overleftarrow{GA}_n({\mathbb F}_q)\). Then they show that most known candidates for non-tame automorphisms are inside the profinite tame polynomial automorphism group \(\overleftarrow{\mathrm{TA}}_n({\mathbb F}_q)\) and give another result showing that tame maps are potentially ``dense'' inside the set of automorphisms. The authors also show that the profinite tame automorphism group is not far from the set of bijections obtained by endomorphisms.