Orbits of linear maps and regular languages

Abstract

We settle the equivalence between the problem of hitting a polyhedral set by the orbit of a linear map and the intersection of a regular language and a language of permutations of binary words (the permutation filter realizability problem). The decidability of the both problems is presently unknown and the first one is a straightforward generalization of the famous Skolem problem and the nonnegativity problem in the theory of linear recurrent sequences. To show a `borderline' status of the permutation filter realizability problem with respect to computability we present some decidable and undecidable problems closely related to it.

The text combines a journal publication and new results submitted to CSR 2011. 33 pages, 7 figures