Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 August 2013
If $X$ is a sofic shift and $\varphi : X\rightarrow X$ is a homeomorphism such that ${\varphi }^{2} = {\text{id} }_{X} $ and $\varphi {\sigma }_{X} = { \sigma }_{X}^{- 1} \varphi $, the number of points in $X$ that are fixed by ${ \sigma }_{X}^{m} $ and ${ \sigma }_{X}^{n} \varphi , m= 1, 2, \ldots , n\in \mathbb{Z} $, is expressed in terms of a finite number of square matrices: the matrices are obtained from Krieger’s joint state chain of a sofic shift which is conjugate to $X$.