Given two rational maps $f,g: \mathbb {P}^1 \to \mathbb {P}^1$ of degree d over $\mathbb {C}$, DeMarco, Krieger, and Ye [Common preperiodic points for quadratic polynomials. J. Mod. Dyn. 18 (2022), 363–413] have conjectured that there should be a uniform bound $B = B(d)> 0$ such that either they have at most B common preperiodic points or they have the same set of preperiodic points. We study their conjecture from a statistical perspective and prove that the average number of shared preperiodic points is zero for monic polynomials of degree $d \geq 6$ with rational coefficients. We also investigate the quantity $\liminf _{x \in \overline {\mathbb {Q}}} (\widehat {h}_f(x) + \widehat {h}_g(x) )$ for a generic pair of polynomials and prove both lower and upper bounds for it.

According to the André–Oort conjecture, an algebraic curve in Y (1)n that is not equal to a special subvariety contains only finitely many points which correspond to ann-tuple of elliptic curves with complex multiplication. Pink’s conjecture generalizes the André–Oort conjecture to the extent that if the curve is not contained in a special subvariety of positive codimension, then it is expected to meet the union of all special subvarieties of codimension two in only finitely many points. We prove this for a large class of curves in Y (1)n. When restricting to special subvarieties of codimension two that are not strongly special we obtain finiteness for all curves defined over . Finally, we formulate and prove a variant of the Mordell–Lang conjecture for subvarieties of Y (1)n.