Algebraic independence results for a certain family of power series, infinite products, and Lambert type series (Q6144558)

\textit{K. Mahler} [Math. Ann. 101, 342--366 (1929; JFM 55.0115.01)] showed that the values of the functions \(f(z)=\sum_{k \geq 0}z^{d^{k}}\), \(g(z)=\sum_{k \geq 0} \left( 1-z^{d^{k}} \right)\) and \(h(z)=\sum_{k \geq 0} z^{d^{k}}/ \left( 1- z^{d^{k}} \right)\), where \(d\) is an integer greater than \(1\), are transcendental for any algebraic number \(z\) with \(0<|z|<1\). The functional equations these functions satisfy play an important role in the proof and such functional methods have become an important way of establishing transcendence results. \textit{K. Nishioka} [Mahler functions and transcendence. Berlin: Springer (1996; Zbl 0876.11034)] established algebraic independence results for values of these three functions at algebraic points \(a_{1}\),\ldots,\(a_{r}\) with \(0< \left| a_{i} \right|\), provided that \(a_{1}\),\ldots,\(a_{r}\) are multiplicatively independent. One can ask for necessary and sufficient conditions for algebraic independence. For \(f(z)\), such conditions are known [\textit{J. H. Loxton} and \textit{A. J. van der Poorten}, J. Aust. Math. Soc., Ser. A 26, 31--45 (1978; Zbl 0392.10034)]. Only weaker or more specific results are currently known for \(g(z)\) and \(h(z)\). The author provides a more complete history of known results in the introduction. Here the author considers questions of algebraic independence for generalisations and variations of such functions. Namely, \[ {\mathcal F}_{m}(x;z)=\sum_{k=0}^{\infty} x^{k}z^{mR_{k}}, \quad {\mathcal G}(y;z)=\prod_{k=0}^{\infty} \left( 1- yz^{R_{k}} \right) \quad \text{ and } \quad {\mathcal H}(x,y;z)=\sum_{k=0}^{\infty} \frac{x^{k}z^{R_{k}}}{1- yz^{R_{k}}}, \] where \(\left\{ R_{k} \right\}_{k \geq 0}\) is a linear recurrence sequence of nonnegative integers which satisfy a linear recurrence with nonnegative integers (not all zero) as coefficients and \(m\) is a positive integer. The author also imposes the condition labelled (R): that the companion polynomial for the recurrence relation does not have \(\pm 1\) as a root, that the ratio of any pair of distinct roots of the companion polynomial is not a root of unity and that the sequence is not a geometric progression. The study of the transcendence and algebraic independence of the values of such functions (or at least \({\mathcal F}_{1}(1;z)\)) at algebraic points goes back to the above work of Mahler. The author's main result is Main Theorem~1.8, which gives necessary and sufficient conditions for an infinite set of values of these functions, as well as their derivatives of any order, at any algebraic points to be algebraically independent. The ``only if'' part is easily established. The author does so immediately before the statement of Main Theorem~1.8. The proof of the ``if'' part is more challenging. The ``if'' part is restated in Theorem~1.9, which is proved, along with related results, in Section~3.