Noncommutative rational Pólya series

A (noncommutative) Pólya series over a field K is a formal power series whose nonzero coefficients are contained in a finitely generated subgroup of $$K^\times $$ K × . We show that rational Pólya series are unambiguous rational series, proving a 40 year old conjecture of Reutenauer. The proof combines methods from noncommutative algebra, automata theory, and number theory (specifically, unit equations). As a corollary, a rational series is a Pólya series if and only if it is Hadamard sub-invertible. Phrased differently, we show that every weighted finite automaton taking values in a finitely generated subgroup of a field (and zero) is equivalent to an unambiguous weighted finite automaton.

Unit Equations on Quaternions

A classical result about unit equations says that if Γ1 and Γ2 are finitely generated subgroups of ${\mathbb C}^\times$, then the equation x + y = 1 has only finitely many solutions with x ∈ Γ1 and y ∈ Γ2. We study a non-commutative analogue of the result, where $\Gamma_1,\Gamma_2$ are finitely generated subsemigroups of the multiplicative group of a quaternion algebra. We prove an analogous conclusion when both semigroups are generated by algebraic quaternions with norms greater than 1 and one of the semigroups is commutative. As an application in dynamics, we prove that if f and g are endomorphisms of a curve C of genus 1 over an algebraically closed field k, and deg( f), deg(g)≥ 2, then f and g have a common iterate if and only if some forward orbit of f on C(k) has infinite intersection with an orbit of g.