English

Locally nilpotent polynomials over $\mathbb{Z}$

Number Theory 2023-09-20 v1 Dynamical Systems

Abstract

For a polynomial u=u(x)u=u(x) in Z[x]\mathbb{Z}[x] and rZr\in\mathbb{Z}, we consider the orbit of uu at rr denoted and defined by Ou(r):={u(r),u(u(r)),}\mathcal{O}_u(r):=\{u(r),u(u(r)),\ldots\}. We ask two questions here: (i) what are the polynomials uu for which 0Ou(r)0\in \mathcal{O}_u(r), and (ii) what are the polynomials for which 0∉Ou(r)0\not\in \mathcal{O}_u(r) but, modulo every prime pp, 0Ou(r)0\in \mathcal{O}_u(r)? In this paper, we give a complete classification of the polynomials for which (ii) holds for a given rr. We also present some results for some special values of rr where (i) can be answered.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2309.10303,
  title  = {Locally nilpotent polynomials over $\mathbb{Z}$},
  author = {Sayak Sengupta},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2309.10303},
  year   = {2023}
}

Comments

17 pages. Few edits throughout the entire paper and one newly added subsection. To appear in INTEGERS. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:2211.06760

R2 v1 2026-06-28T12:25:39.493Z