English

Dumont-Thomas complement numeration systems for $\mathbb{Z}$

Combinatorics 2025-01-27 v4 Dynamical Systems Number Theory

Abstract

We extend the well-known Dumont--Thomas numeration systems to Z\mathbb{Z} using an approach inspired by the two's complement numeration system. Integers in Z\mathbb{Z} are canonically represented by a finite word (starting with 0\mathtt{0} when nonnegative and with 1\mathtt{1} when negative). The systems are based on two-sided periodic points of substitutions as opposed to the right-sided fixed points. For every periodic point of a substitution, we construct an automaton which returns the letter at position nZn\in\mathbb{Z} of the periodic point when fed with the representation of nn in the corresponding numeration system. The numeration system naturally extends to Zd\mathbb{Z}^d. We give an equivalent characterization of the numeration system in terms of a total order on a regular language. Lastly, using particular periodic points, we recover the well-known two's complement numeration system and the Fibonacci analogue of the two's complement numeration system.

Cite

@article{arxiv.2302.14481,
  title  = {Dumont-Thomas complement numeration systems for $\mathbb{Z}$},
  author = {Sébastien Labbé and Jana Lepšová},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2302.14481},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

v1: 14 pages, 1 figure, 1 table. v2: 16 pages, added a section on a characterization of the numeration system by a total order on a regular language. v3: 18 pages, changes during review, rewritten introduction. v4: fixed typo, added Question 9.3

R2 v1 2026-06-28T08:51:40.879Z