Positivity of Nearly Linearly Recurrent Sequences

Abstract: In this paper we formulate the Positivity Problem for nearly linear recurrent sequences. This is a generalisation of the Positivity Problem for linear recurrence sequences and is a special case of the non-reachability problem for linear time-invariant systems. Our main contribution is a decision procedure for the Positivity Problem for nearly linear recurrences of order at most 3 whose characteristic roots have absolute value at most one. The decision procedure relies on a new transcendence result for infinite series that is of independent interest.