Spectrum, algebraicity and normalization in alternate bases

TL;DR

This paper investigates the algebraic properties of alternate bases for number systems, establishing conditions for sofic systems and showing that normalization can be achieved with finite automata when certain algebraic criteria are met.

Contribution

It provides necessary and sufficient algebraic conditions for soficity of alternate base systems and constructs finite automata for normalization under these conditions.

Findings

Necessary condition: product of bases is an algebraic integer.

Sufficient condition: product is a Pisot number and bases are in its field.

Normalization is computable by a finite automaton when conditions are met.

Abstract

The first aim of this article is to give information about the algebraic properties of alternate bases $\boldsymbol{\beta}=(\beta_0,\dots,\beta_{p-1})$ determining sofic systems. We show that a necessary condition is that the product $\delta=\prod_{i=0}^{p-1}\beta_i$ is an algebraic integer and all of the bases $\beta_0,\ldots,\beta_{p-1}$ belong to the algebraic field ${\mathbb Q}(\delta)$. On the other hand, we also give a sufficient condition: if $\delta$ is a Pisot number and $\beta_0,\ldots,\beta_{p-1}\in {\mathbb Q}(\delta)$, then the system associated with the alternate base $\boldsymbol{\beta}=(\beta_0,\dots,\beta_{p-1})$ is sofic. The second aim of this paper is to provide an analogy of Frougny's result concerning normalization of real bases representations. We show that given an alternate base $\boldsymbol{\beta}=(\beta_0,\dots,\beta_{p-1})$ such that $\delta$ is a Pisot number and $\beta_0,\ldots,\beta_{p-1}\in {\mathbb Q}(\delta)$, the normalization function is computable by a finite B\"uchi automaton, and furthermore, we effectively construct such an automaton. An important tool in our study is the spectrum of numeration systems associated with alternate bases. The spectrum of a real number $\delta>1$ and an alphabet $A\subset {\mathbb Z}$ was introduced by Erd\H{o}s et al. For our purposes, we use a generalized concept with $\delta\in{\mathbb C}$ and $A\subset{\mathbb C}$ and study its topological properties.