Construction of regular languages and recognizability of polynomials

peer reviewedA generalization of numeration systems in which NI is recognizable by finite automata can be obtained by describing a lexicographically ordered infinite regular language. We show that if P is an element of Q[x] is a polynomial such that P(N) subset of N then there exists a numeration system in which the set of representations of P(N) is regular. The main issue is to construct a regular language with a complexity function equals to P(n + 1) - P(n) for n large enough. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved