A-proof-of-Pisot’s-dth-root-conjecture.pdfVIP

Annals of Mathematics, 151 (2000), 375–383 A proof of Pisot’s dth root conjecture By Umberto Zannier Abstract Let {b(n) : n ∈ N} be the sequence of coefficients in the Taylor expansion of a rational function R(X ) ∈ Q(X ) and suppose that b(n) is a perfect dth power for all large n. A conjecture of Pisot states that one can choose a dth root a(n) of b(n) such that a(n)Xn is also a rational function. Actually, this is the fundamental case of an analogous statement formulated for fields more general than Q. A number of papers have been devoted to various special cases. In this note we shall completely settle the general case. Introduction Let R(X ) = ∞ b(n)Xn represent a rational function in k(X ), where n=0 char k = 0. (This is equivalent to a linear recurrence t c b(n + i) = 0, i=0 i valid for large n.) Suppose that there exists a field F ⊃ k, finitely generated over Q, such that b(n) is a perfect dth power in F for all large n. Then, it is a generalization of a conjecture attributed to Pisot (see e.g. [B], [RvdP] and §6.4 of [vdP1]) that there exists a sequence {a(n)} such that a(n)d = b(n) for n ˜ large n and R(X ) := a(n)X is again rational. Let β , . . . , β be the poles of R(X ), of multiplicities m , . . . , m respec- 1 h 1 h tively. Then it is well-known that for large n, b(n) may be expressed as an exponential polynomial h (1)