Some Results On The Flynn-Poonen-Schaefer Conjecture

Abstract

For $c \in \mathbb{Q}$, consider the quadratic polynomial map $\varphi_c(x)=x^2-c$. Flynn, Poonen and Schaefer conjectured in 1997 that no rational cycle of $\varphi_c$ under iteration has length more than $3$. Here we discuss this conjecture using arithmetic and combinatorial means, leading to three main results. First, we show that if $\varphi_c$ admits a rational cycle of length $n \ge 3$, then the denominator of $c$ must be divisible by $16$. We then provide an upper bound on the number of periodic rational points of $\varphi_c$ in terms of the number of distinct prime factors of the denominator of $c$. Finally, we show that the Flynn-Poonen-Schaefer conjecture holds for $\varphi_c$ if that denominator has at most two distinct prime factors.