Completing the picture for the Skolem Problem on order-4 linear recurrence sequences

For almost a century, the decidability of the Skolem Problem - that is, the problem of finding whether a given linear recurrence sequence (LRS) has a zero term - has remained open. A breakthrough in the 1980s established that the Skolem Problem is indeed decidable for algebraic LRS of order at most 3, and real algebraic LRS of order at most 4. However, for general algebraic LRS of order 4 the question of decidability has remained open. Our main contribution in this paper is to prove decidability for this last case, i.e. we show that the Skolem Problem is decidable for all algebraic LRS of order at most 4. 11 pages. This is the TheoretiCS journal version

Authors

Publication Details

Journal
TheoretiCS
Published
2025-12-02
DOI
https://doi.org/10.46298/theoretics.25.28
Primary Topic
Polynomial and algebraic computation
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

Funders

Controls
|||
ALL TIME
JAN
FEB
MAR
APR
MAY
JUN
JUL
AUG
SEP
OCT
article

Completing the picture for the Skolem Problem on order-4 linear recurrence sequences

Piotr Bacik
TheoretiCS
Polynomial and algebraic computation
article

Completing the picture for the Skolem Problem on order-4 linear recurrence sequences

Piotr Bacik
article en

Abstract

For almost a century, the decidability of the Skolem Problem - that is, the problem of finding whether a given linear recurrence sequence (LRS) has a zero term - has remained open. A breakthrough in the 1980s established that the Skolem Problem is indeed decidable for algebraic LRS of order at most 3, and real algebraic LRS of order at most 4. However, for general algebraic LRS of order 4 the question of decidability has remained open. Our main contribution in this paper is to prove decidability for this last case, i.e. we show that the Skolem Problem is decidable for all algebraic LRS of order at most 4. 11 pages. This is the TheoretiCS journal version

TheoretiCSVol. Volume 4
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
Openalex Percentile: Top 62%
Polynomial and algebraic computation
AI Navigator

Ask Laika to Summarize, Analyze, and Connect papers live on the map.

Summarize Papers & Methodologies

Extract key findings, datasets, and comparative methods across publications.

Benchmark Rankings & Visual Analytics

Rank top research institutions, authors, funders, topics, and journals by Field-Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI) and paper volume with instant charts.

Connect Distant Disciplines

Bridge topological clusters on the map to find hidden collaborative intersections.