Good Reduction of Preperiodic Points
Sarah Blackwell
Saint Louis University
Abstract
This paper considers dynamical systems of rational functions modulo primes in order to compare the original orbits of a function to the reduced orbit. It is already known what happens to the period, or the repeating iterate values, of a certain preperiodic point when we reduce modulo a certain prime. We have shown that when a tail, or the values of iterates that occur before the iterates become periodic, is reduced modulo a prime, all possible tail lengths can be achieved.
