New normal forms for degree-3 polynomials and rational functions

When studying families in the moduli space of dynamical systems, choosing an appropriate representative function for a conjugacy class can be a delicate task. The most delicate questions surround rationality of the conjugacy class compared to rationality of the defining polynomials of the representation. We give a normal form for degree-3 polynomials which has the property that the set of fixed points is equal to the set of fixed point multipliers. This normal form is given in terms of moduli space invariants and, hence, has nice rationality properties. We further classify all degree-3 rational maps which can be conjugated to have a similar relationship between the fixed points and the fixed point multipliers.