On formal inverse of the Prouhet-Thue-Morse sequence

Abstract

Let $p$ be a prime number and consider a $p$-automatic sequence ${\bf u}=(u_{n})_{n\in\N}$ and its generating function $U(X)=\sum_{n=0}^{\infty}u_{n}X^{n}\in\mathbb{F}_{p}[[X]]$. Moreover, let us suppose that $u_{0}=0$ and $u_{1}\neq 0$ and consider the formal power series $V\in\mathbb{F}_{p}[[X]]$ which is a compositional inverse of $U(X)$, i.e., $U(V(X))=V(U(X))=X$. In this note we initiate the study of arithmetic properties of the sequence of coefficients of the power series $V(X)$. We are mainly interested in the case when $u_{n}=t_{n}$, where $t_{n}=s_{2}(n)\pmod{2}$ and ${\bf t}=(t_{n})_{n\in\N}$ is the Prouhet-Thue-Morse sequence defined on the two letter alphabet $\{0,1\}$. More precisely, we study the sequence ${\bf c}=(c_{n})_{n\in\N}$ which is the sequence of coefficients of the compositional inverse of the generating function of the sequence ${\bf t}$. This sequence is clearly 2-automatic. We describe the sequence ${\bf a}$ characterizing solutions of the equation $c_{n}=1$. In particular, we prove that the sequence ${\bf a}$ is 2-regular. We also prove that an increasing sequence characterizing solutions of the equation $c_{n}=0$ is not $k$-regular for any $k$. Moreover, we present a result concerning some density properties of a sequence related to ${\bf a}$.