Context-free languages and associative algebras with algebraic Hilbert series

Abstract

In this paper, homological methods together with the theory of formal languages of theoretical computer science are proved to be effective tools to determine the growth and the Hilbert series of an associative algebra. Namely, we construct a class of finitely presented associative algebras related to a family of context-free languages. This allows us to connect the Hilbert series of these algebras with the generating functions of such languages. In particular, we obtain a class of finitely presented graded algebras with non-rational algebraic Hilbert series.