Local and global canonical height functions for affine space regular automorphisms

Abstract

Let f: A^N \to A^N be a regular polynomial automorphism defined over a number field K. For each place v of K, we construct the v-adic Green functions G_{f,v} and G_{f^{-1},v} (i.e., the v-adic canonical height functions) for f and f^{-1}. Next we introduce for f the notion of good reduction at v, and using this notion, we show that the sum of v-adic Green functions over all v gives rise to a canonical height function for f that satisfies the Northcott-type finiteness property. Using previous results, we recover results on arithmetic properties of f-periodic points and non f-periodic points. We also obtain an estimate of growth of heights under f and f^{-1}, which is independently obtained by Lee by a different method.