TITLE: Does an inverse polynomial map on the taylor coefficients of a rational function preserve rationality?
QUESTION [5 upvotes]: Supppose there are integers $a_1,a_2,\dots$ and a polynomial $p$ so that the integers $p(a_1),p(a_2)...$ satisfy some linear recurrence, i.e. $\sum p(a_i)x^i$ is a rational function of $x$. Must integers $b_i\in p^{-1}(p(a_i))$ so that $\sum b_ix^i$ is a rational function, necessarily exist?
(The answer is no if we ask for the function $\sum a_i x^i$ to be rational, as can be seen when $p(t)=t^2$ and $a_i$ being a random sequence of $\pm1$)

REPLY [3 votes]: If $p(x)=x^d$ then this question coincides with Pisot's d'th root conjecture. A proof is given in this paper of Zannier, I'm not sure if it's the one that Qiaochu was referring to in the comments.
Edit: A more general question was answered in the subsequent article Equations in the Hadamard ring of rational functions by Andrea Ferretti and Umberto Zannier.