Generalization of Beardon’s theorem to tame rational functions

Let K\mathbb{K} be a field of characteristic char(K)\operatorname{char}(\mathbb{K}), and let ff be a rational function over K\mathbb{K} whose degree is not a multiple of char(K)\operatorname{char}(\mathbb{K}). For a rational function gg, write Γ(g)\Gamma(g) for its group of compositional symmetries. The preceding theorem asserts that for tame polynomials p1,,pmp_1,\ldots,p_m, if k1,,km,kk_1,\ldots,k_m,k are the orders of Γ(p1),,Γ(pm),Γ(p1pm)\Gamma(p_1),\ldots,\Gamma(p_m),\Gamma(p_1\circ\cdots\circ p_m), respectively, then kk divides k1kmk_1\cdots k_m. Generalized Beardon conjecture. Theorem is true for every rational function whose degree is not a multiple of the characteristic of the field. The conjecture would extend the divisibility result from tame polynomials to rational functions; the preceding example shows that the polynomial proof does not directly generalize in the rational case because fields of the same degree need not be unique.

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Primary source

Jaime Gutierrez and David Sevilla, “On decomposition of tame polynomials and rational functions”, arXiv:0804.1649 (2008).

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