Quantitative Equidistribution of Small Points for Canonical Heights

Abstract

Let $X$ be a smooth projective variety defined over a number field $K$ and let $\varphi: X \to X$ a polarized endomorphism of degree $d \geq 2$. Let $\widehat{h}_{\varphi}$ be the canonical height associated to $\varphi$ on $X(\overline{K})$. Given a generic sequence of points $(x_n)$ with $\widehat{h}_{\varphi}(x_n) \to 0$ and a place $v \in M_K$, Yuan [Yua08] has shown that the conjugates of $x_n$ equidistribute to the canonical measure $\mu_{\varphi,v}$. When $v$ is archimedean, we will prove a quantitative version of Yuan's result. We give two applications of our result to polarized endomorphisms $\varphi$ of smooth projective surfaces that are defined over a number field $K$. The first is an exponential rate of convergence for periodic points of period $n$ to the equilibrium measure and the second is an exponential lower bound on the degree of the extension containing all periodic points of period $n$. When $X$ is an abelian variety, we also give an upper bound on the smallest degree of a hypersurface that contains all points $x \in X(\overline{K})$ satisfying $[K(x):K] \leq D$ and $\widehat{h}_X(x) \leq \frac{c}{D^8}$ for some fixed constant $c > 0$ where $\widehat{h}_X$ is the Neron--Tate height for $X$.