We study rational self-maps of $\mathbb{P}^{1}$ whose critical points all
have finite forward orbit. Thurston's rigidity theorem states that outside a
single well-understood family, there are finitely many such maps over
$\mathbb{C}$ of fixed degree and critical orbit length. We provide an algebraic
proof of this fact for polynomial maps, valid over any field whose
characteristic is zero or larger than the degree of the map. We also produce
counterexamples when the characteristic of the field is positive and smaller
than the degree.
We restate the semistable reduction theorem from geometric invariant theory
in the context of spaces of morphisms on $\mathbb{P}^{n}$. For every complete
curve $C$ downstairs, we get a $\mathbb{P}^{n}$-bundle on an abstract curve $D$
mapping finite-to-one onto $C$, whose trivializations correspond to not
necessarily complete curves upstairs with morphisms corresponding to
identifying each fiber with the morphism the point represents.
The theory of moduli of morphisms on P^n generalizes the study of rational
maps on P^1. This paper proves three results about the space of morphisms on
P^n of degree d > 1, and its quotient by the conjugation action of PGL(n+1).
First, we prove that this quotient is geometric, and compute the stable and
semistable completions of the space of morphisms. This strengthens previous
results of Silverman, as well as of Petsche, Szpiro, and Tepper. Second, we
bound the size of the stabilizer group in PGL(n+1) of every morphism in terms
of only n and d.