Finiteness theorems for commuting and semiconjugate rational functions

Abstract: Let

B

be a fixed rational function of one complex variable of degree at least two. In this paper, we study solutions of the functional equation

A c i r c X = X c i r c B

in rational functions

A

and

X

. Our main result states that, unless

B

is a Latt`es map or is conjugate to

z^{p m d}

or

p m T_{d}

, the set of solutions is finite, up to some natural transformations. In more detail, we show that there exist finitely many rational functions

A_{1}, A_{2}, d o t s, A_{r}

and

X_{1}, X_{2}, d o t s, X_{r}

such that the equality

A c i r c X = X c i r c B

holds if and only if there exists a M"obius transformation

m u

such that

A = m u c i r c A_{j} c i r c m u^{- 1}

and

X = m u c i r c X_{j} c i r c B^{c i r c k}

for some

j,

1 l e q j l e q r,

and

k g e q 1

. We also show that the number

r

and the degrees

d e g X_{j},

1 l e q j l e q r,

can be bounded from above in terms of the degree of

B

only. As an application, we prove an effective version of the classical theorem of Ritt about commuting rational functions.

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