The local Lehmer inequality for Drinfeld modules (Q2370193)

Let \(\alpha\in K\) an element of a number field which is not a root of unity. The classical Lehmer conjecture affirms a lower bound for the logarithm height \(h\), explicitly \(h(\alpha)\geq \frac{C}{[\mathbb Q(\alpha):\mathbb Q]}\) with \(C>0\). \textit{L. Denis} in [Math. Ann. 294, No. 2, 213--223 (1992; Zbl 0764.11027)] formulated an analog to Lehmer conjecture for a height \(\hat{h}\) associated to a Drinfeld module \(\phi: A\rightarrow K\{\tau\}\), (recall \(\phi\) is a ring homomorphism with certain properties, here \(A\) is the ring of functions on \(C\) a nonsingular projective curve defined over a finite field \(\mathbb{F}_q\) that are regular everywhere except a fixed closed point \(\infty\) of \(C\), and \(K\) a field extension of \(\mathbb{F}_q\)). Torsion points of \(\phi\), correspond to zeros of \(\phi_a(x)\), these are the analogs of root of unity for the Drinfeld module \(\phi\). The conjecture states that exists a constant \(D''>0\) such that any non-torsion point \(x\) belonging to the algebraic closure of \(K\) satisfies \(\hat{h}(x)\geq \frac{D''}{[K(x):K]}\) where \(K\) is a finitely generated field. The paper under review introduces a theory of local heights \(\hat{h}_v\) associated to \(\phi\) at valuations \(v\). The paper under review contains a careful analysis of the valuations \(v\) at a point \(x\) and its iterates under the action of the Drinfeld module which allows the author to obtain inequalities in the direction of Lehmer type inequality. The main result of the paper is: let \(v\) a place of the algebraic extension \(K(x)\) of \(K\) with \(v|v_0\) \(v_0\) a place of \(K\), suppose \(\hat{h}_v(x)>0\) and suppose moreover \(v_0\neq \infty\) if \(\phi\) has generic characteristic, then there exists \(D>0\) real and \(k\geq 1\) an integer both depending only on \(\phi\), such that \[ \hat{h}_v(x)\geq \frac{Dd(v)}{e(v|v_0)^{k-1}}\geq \frac{Dd(v_0)}{[K(x):K]^k} \] where \(d(w)\) is the degree of \(w\) and \(e(v|v_0)\) is the ramification index. From the above result for local heights, with \(K\) a finitely generated field, it follows a Lehmer type inequality of the shape \(\hat{h}(x)\geq \frac{D'}{[K(x):K]^k}\) with \(D'>0\) a constant and \(x\) non-torsion. The constants \(D\) and \(k\) are explicit in terms of \(\phi\) in the proof of the main result in the paper and also the author observes with examples that one can not expect in general \(k=1\) for Lehmer type inequalities for the local heights \(\hat{h}_v\), and the condition \(v_0\neq\infty\) for the generic case in the main theorem is necessary (there are points arbitrary close to 0 in the \(\infty\)-adic topology which have arbitrary small positive local height at \(\infty\)).