English

Index Divisibility in Dynamical Sequences and Cyclic Orbits Modulo $p$

Number Theory 2016-08-09 v1 Dynamical Systems

Abstract

Let ϕ(x)=xd+c\phi(x) = x^d + c be an integral polynomial of degree at least 2, and consider the sequence (ϕn(0))n=0(\phi^n(0))_{n=0}^\infty, which is the orbit of 00 under iteration by ϕ\phi. Let Dd,cD_{d,c} denote the set of positive integers nn for which nϕn(0)n \mid \phi^n(0). We give a characterization of Dd,cD_{d,c} in terms of a directed graph and describe a number of its properties, including its cardinality and the primes contained therein. In particular, we study the question of which primes pp have the property that the orbit of 00 is a single pp-cycle modulo pp. We show that the set of such primes is finite when dd is even, and conjecture that it is infinite when dd is odd.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1608.02177,
  title  = {Index Divisibility in Dynamical Sequences and Cyclic Orbits Modulo $p$},
  author = {Annie S. Chen and T. Alden Gassert and Katherine E. Stange},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1608.02177},
  year   = {2016}
}

Comments

20 pages, 7 figures

R2 v1 2026-06-22T15:14:08.546Z