Twisted Mahler discrete residues

Abstract

Recently we constructed Mahler discrete residues for rational functions and showed they comprise a complete obstruction to the Mahler summability problem of deciding whether a given rational function $f(x)$ is of the form $g(x^p)-g(x)$ for some rational function $g(x)$ and an integer $p > 1$. Here we develop a notion of $\lambda$-twisted Mahler discrete residues for $\lambda\in\mathbb{Z}$, and show that they similarly comprise a complete obstruction to the twisted Mahler summability problem of deciding whether a given rational function $f(x)$ is of the form $p^\lambda g(x^p)-g(x)$ for some rational function $g(x)$ and an integer $p>1$. We provide some initial applications of twisted Mahler discrete residues to differential creative telescoping problems for Mahler functions and to the differential Galois theory of linear Mahler equations.