On arboreal Galois representations of rational functions (Q903934)

Let \(K\) be a global field and a rational function \(\phi\in K(x)\), the action of the absolute Galois group of \(K\) on the tree \(T(\phi, \alpha)\) of iterated preimages of \(\alpha\in\mathbb{P}^1(K)\) under \(\phi)\) induces a homomorphism \(\rho: \mathrm{Gal}(K^{\mathrm{sep}}/K)\rightarrow \Aut(T(\phi, \alpha)\), which is called an arboreal Galois representation. The object of the paper is to address questions posed by \textit{R. Jones} [in: Actes de la conférence ``Théorie des nombres et applications''. Besançon: Presses Universitaires de Franche-Comté. 107--136 (2013; Zbl 1307.11069)] and \textit{R. Jones} and \textit{M. Manes} [Comment. Math. Helv. 89, No. 1, 173--213 (2014; Zbl 1316.11104)] on the size of the group \(G(\phi, \alpha):=\mathrm{im}\rho=\varprojlim \mathrm{Gal}(K(\phi^{-n}(\alpha))/K)\), for \(\deg \phi=2\). Specifically, the author considers two cases for the pair \((\phi, \alpha)\): (1) \(\phi\) is such that the sequence \(\{a_n\}\) defined by \(a_0=\alpha\) and \(a_n=\phi(a_{n-1})\) is periodic, and (2) \(\phi\) commutes with a nontrivial Moebius transformation that fixes \(\alpha\). In the first case, he describes the Galois group of iterates of polynomials \(\phi\in \mathbb{Z}[X]\) of the form \(\phi(x)=x^2+kx\) or \(\phi(x)=x^2-(k+1)x+k\), when \(K=\mathbb{Q}\) and gives results on the size of \(G(\phi, \alpha)\) in these cases. As a consequence, he obtain a zero-density result for primes dividing terms of the sequence \({a_n}\) defined by \(a_0\in \mathbb{Z }\) and \(a_n=\phi(a_{n-1})\). In the second case, he proves that if the group \(A(\phi)\) of Moebius transformations that commute with \(\phi\) and fix 0 is non trivial, the centralizer of \(A(\phi)\), \(C(\phi)\subset \mathrm{Aut}(T(\phi))\) is a small subgroup. This solves a conjecture of R. Jones.