We investigate the number of periodic points of certain discrete quadratic maps modulo prime numbers. We do so by first exploring previously known results for two particular quadratic maps, after which we explain why the methods used in these two cases are hard to adapt to a more general case. We then perform experiments and find striking patterns in the behaviour of these general cases which suggest that, apart from the two special cases, the number of periodic points of all quadratic maps of this type behave the same. Finally we formulate a conjecture to this effect.

A quadratic form on \(\mathbb{R}^n\) is a map of the form \(x \mapsto x^T M x\), where M is a symmetric \(n \times n\) matrix. A quadratic map from \(\mathbb{R}^n\) to \(\mathbb{R}^m\) is a map, all m of whose components are quadratic forms. One of the two central questions in this thesis is this: when is the image of a quadratic map \(Q: \mathbb{R}^n \rightarrow \mathbb{R}^m\) a convex subset of \(\mathbb{R}^m\)? This question has intrinsic interest; despite being only a degree removed from linear maps, quadratic maps are not well understood. However, the convexity properties of quadratic maps have practical consequences as well: underlying every semidefinite program is a quadratic map, and the convexity of the image of that map determines the nature of the solutions to the semidefinite program. Quadratic maps that map into \(\mathbb{R}^2\) and \(\mathbb{R}^3\) have been studied before (in (Dines, 1940) and (Calabi, 1964) respectively). The Roundness Theorem, the first of the two principal results in this thesis, is a sufficient and (almost) necessary condition for a quadratic map \(Q: \mathbb{R}^n \rightarrow \mathbb{R}^m\) to have a convex image when \(m \geq 4\), \(n \geq m\) and \(n \not= m + 1\). Concomitant with the Roundness Theorem is an important lemma: when \(n < m\), quadratic maps from \(\mathbb{R}^n\) to \(\mathbb{R}^m\)seldom have convex images. This second result in this thesis is a controllability condition for bilinear systems defined on direct products of the form \(\mathcal{G} \times\mathcal{G}\), where \(\mathcal{G}\) is a simple Lie group. The condition is this: a bilinear system defined on \(\mathcal{G} \times\mathcal{G}\) is not controllable if and only if the Lie algebra generated by the system’s vector fields is the graph of some automorphism of \(\mathcal{g}\), the Lie algebra of \(\mathcal{G}\). / Engineering and Applied Sciences

Since the introduction of Pollard's rho method for integer factorisation in 1975 there has been great interest in understanding the dynamics of quadratic maps over finite fields. One avenue for this, and indeed the heuristic on which Pollard bases the proof of the method's efficacy, is the idea that quadratic maps behave roughly like random maps. We explore this heuristic from the perspective of comparing the number of periodic points. We find that empirically random maps appear to model the number of periodic points of quadratic maps well, and moreover prove that the number of periodic points of random maps satisfy an interesting asymptotic behaviour that we have observed experimentally for quadratic maps.

No description available.