On $N$-Unital Functions

Abstract

Let $N$ be a positive integer. We say a non-constant rational function $U(x)\in{\mathbb C}(x)$ is $N$-\emph{unital} if all the zeros and poles of both $U(x)$ and $1-U(x)$ are either 0 or $N$-th roots of unity. These functions are called admissible functions by Au in a recent paper arXiv:2007.03957 and used to study some central binomial series of Ap\'ery type via their iterated integral expression related to multiple polylogrithms and colored multiple zeta values. In this paper we determine the complete set of these functions for $N\le 4$ by elementary method, and briefly study some cases at level 5.