Gap for geometric canonical height functions

Abstract

We prove the existence of a gap around zero for canonical height functions associated with endomorphisms of projective spaces defined over complex function fields. We also prove that if the rational points of height zero are Zariski dense, then the endomorphism is birationally isotrivial. As a corollary, by a result of S. Cantat and J. Xie, we have a geometric Northcott property on projective plane in the same spirit of results of R. Benedetto, M. Baker and L. Demarco on the projective line.