English

A Dichotomy for $k$-automatic expansions of Presburger Arithmetic

Logic 2026-05-14 v2 Formal Languages and Automata Theory

Abstract

Let k2k\ge 2 and let XX be a subset of the natural numbers that is kk-automatic and not eventually periodic. We show that the following dichotomy holds: either all kk-automatic subsets are definable in the expansion of Presburger arithmetic in which we adjoin the predicate XX, or (N,+,X)(\mathbb{N},+,X) has the same definable sets as (N,+,kN)(\mathbb{N},+,k^{\mathbb{N}}).

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2508.04851,
  title  = {A Dichotomy for $k$-automatic expansions of Presburger Arithmetic},
  author = {Jason Bell and Alexi Block Gorman and Chris Schulz},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2508.04851},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

32 pages