On solving star equations (Q1085619)

A star equation (in X) is a language equation \(X=F(X)\), where F is a function mapping languages to languages which can be expressed using the operations union, concatenation from the left by a constant language, and unrestricted star. We show existence of solutions, as well as uniqueness under certain additional conditions. Also, the question is studied whether a star equation has a regular solution if all its constant languages are regular.