Birecurrent sets

Abstract

A set is called recurrent if its minimal automaton is strongly connected and birecurrent if it is recurrent as well as reversal. We prove a series of results concerning birecurrent sets. It is already known that any birecurrent set is completely reducible (that is, such that the minimal representation of its characteristic series is completely reducible). The main result of this paper characterizes completely reducible sets as linear combinations of birecurrent sets