On the dynamics of endomorphisms of affine surfaces

Abstract

In [FJ07], Favre and Jonsson developed tools from valuative theory to study the dynamics of a dominant endomorphism of the complex affine plane. We extend this theory to the case of any affine surface, over any field. We give a new method to construct an eigenvaluation of an endomorphism. We generalize the result of Favre and Jonsson and show that the first dynamical degree of a dominant endomorphism of a normal affine surface is an algebraic integer of degree less or equal than 2. The general method is to construct a compactification where our endomorphisms admit a fixed point at infinity where the dynamical degree can be computed by studying the local dynamics at this point. We then apply this construction to the study of the dynamics of automorphisms where we are able to say much more. In particular, we obtain a new kind of rigidity result: the set of first dynamical degrees of loxodromic automorphisms of a given affine surface must be fully contained in the set of integers or in the set of algebraic integers of degree 2.