A weak equivalence between shifts of finite type (Q1865259)

Shifts of finite type \(S\), \(T\) are here called weakly equivalent if there are finite alphabets \(A\) and \(B\) with \(S\subset A^{\mathbb{Z}}\) and \(T\subset B^{\mathbb{Z}}\) and sliding block codes \(f:A^{\mathbb{Z}}\to B^{\mathbb{Z}}\), \(g:B^{\mathbb{Z}}\to A^{\mathbb{Z}}\) with \(S=f^{-1}(T)\) and \(R=g^{-1}(S)\). This equivalence is weaker than the traditional notions of shift equivalence and strong shift equivalence; in particular weak equivalence does not preserve topological entropy. In this paper it is shown that weak equivalence is decidable for the class of `flower' edge shifts (those generated by finite circular codes). In the general case little can be said: periodic points give some simple necessary conditions for weak equivalence, but the question of decidability is open. Finally an example is given of a `flower' edge shift that is weakly equivalent to a non-flower shift.