The dynamics of linearized polynomials (Q4487709)

The authors consider (eventually) periodic orbits of the dynamical systems obtained by letting a linearized polynomial over a finite field act on the algebraic closure of such field. They prove that (essentially) every system of this type supports infinitely many orbits of any given pre-period and period, completing and generalizing previous work by \textit{A. Batra} and \textit{P. Morton}. Since the points in phase space are algebraic over the ground field, they are encoded by their minimal polynomial, thereby treating all conjugate orbits at once. This construction induces a dynamics of irreducible polynomials, in terms of which all results are formulated and proved.