The McMullen Map in Positive Characteristic

Alon Levy

Published 2013-04-10, updated 2014-10-09Version 2

McMullen proved the moduli space of complex rational maps can be parametrized by the spectrum of all periodic-point multipliers up to a finite amount of data, with the well-understood exception of Latt\`{e}s maps. We generalize his method to large positive characteristic. McMullen's method is analytic; a modified version of the method using rigid analysis works over a function field over a finite field of characteristic larger than the degree of the map. Over a finite field with such characteristic it implies that, generically, rational maps can indeed be parametrized by their multiplier spectra up to a finite-to-one map. Moreover, the set of exceptions, that is positive-dimension varieties in moduli space with identical multipliers, maps to just a finite set of multiplier spectra. We also prove an application, generalizing a result of McMullen over the complex numbers: there is no generally convergent purely iterative root-finding algorithm over a non-archimedean field whose residue characteristic is larger than either the degree of the algorithm or the degree of the polynomial whose roots the algorithm finds.