A homomorphic characterization of regular languages

Abstract Every regular language R (over any alphabet) can be represented in the form R = h 4 h −1 3 h 2 h −1 1 (1∗0) where h 1 , h 2 , h 3 , and h 4 are homomorphisms. Furthermore, if n is sufficiently large, then R = g 3 g −1 2 g 1 ({1, …, n}∗0) where, g 1 , g 2 , and g 3 are homomorphisms.