The non-unit conjecture for Misiurewicz parameters

Abstract

A Misiurewicz parameter is a complex number $c$ for which the orbit of the critical point $z=0$ under $z^2+c$ is strictly preperiodic. Such parameters play the same role as special points in dynamical moduli spaces that singular moduli (corresponding to CM elliptic curves) play as special points on modular curves. Building on our earlier work, we investigate whether the difference of two Misiurewicz parameters can be an algebraic unit. (The corresponding question for singular moduli was recently answered in the negative by Li.) We answer this dynamical question in many new cases under a widely believed irreducibility assumption.

19 pages