English

Cobham's theorem for the Gaussian integers

Number Theory 2025-12-05 v2 Formal Languages and Automata Theory Commutative Algebra

Abstract

Assuming the four exponentials conjecture, Hansel and Safer showed that if a subset SS of the Gaussian integers is both α=m+i\alpha=-m+i - and β=n+i\beta=-n+i-recognizable, then it is syndetic, and they conjectured that SS must be eventually periodic. Without assuming the four exponentials conjecture, we show that if α\alpha and β\beta are multiplicatively independent Gaussian integers, and at least one of α\alpha, β\beta is not an nn-th root of an integer, then any α\alpha- and β\beta-automatic configuration is eventually periodic; in particular we prove Hansel and Safer's conjecture. Otherwise, there exist non-eventually periodic configurations which are α\alpha-automatic for any root of an integer α\alpha. Our work generalises the Cobham-Semenov theorem to Gaussian numerations.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2510.01440,
  title  = {Cobham's theorem for the Gaussian integers},
  author = {Álvaro Bustos-Gajardo and Robbert Fokkink and Reem Yassawi},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2510.01440},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

15 pages, 2 figures

R2 v1 2026-07-01T06:11:54.688Z