English

On the self-similarity of rational power series with matrix coefficients

Combinatorics 2026-05-22 v1 Rings and Algebras

Abstract

Let pp be a prime, let d1d \geq 1 be an integer and AA be the algebra of square matrices of size dd over the field of order pp. Let P,QA[x1,xn]P, Q \in A[x_1, \dots x_n] be polynomials in nn indeterminates with coefficients in AA, such that QQ is invertible in A[ ⁣[x1,,xn] ⁣] A[\![x_1, \dots, x_n]\!]. Let also M ⁣:ZnA\mathcal M \colon \mathbf Z^n \to A be the map associating to the nn-tuple of integers (α1,,αn)(\alpha_1, \dots, \alpha_n) the coefficient of the monomial x1α1xnαnx_1^{\alpha_1} \dots x_n^{\alpha_n} in the development of the rational fraction PQ1PQ^{-1} as a power series (the support of M\mathcal M is contained in Nn\mathbf N^n). Our main result ensures that the map M\mathcal M, viewed as a tiling of Rn\mathbf R^n by unit cubes with color set AA, is self-similar. The self-similarity is expressed in terms of invariance under substitutions. By specializing to d=1d=1, n=2n=2, P=1P=1 and Q=1x1x2Q =1-x_1-x_2, we recover the well-known self-similarity feature of the binomial coefficients modulo pp.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2605.22624,
  title  = {On the self-similarity of rational power series with matrix coefficients},
  author = {Pierre-Emmanuel Caprace and Justin Vast},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2605.22624},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

15 pages (core) + 6 pages (appendix); 11 figures; most figures are in the appendix