Three-term recurrence relations of minimal affinizations of type $G_2$

Abstract: Minimal affinizations form a class of modules of quantum affine algebras introduced by Chari. We introduce a system of equations satisfied by the $q$-characters of minimal affinizations of type $G_2$ which we call the M-system of type $G_2$. The M-system of type $G_2$ contains all minimal affinizations of type $G_2$ and only contains minimal affinizations. The equations in the M-system of type $G_2$ are three-term recurrence relations. The M-system of type $G_2$ is much simpler than the extended T-system of type $G_2$ obtained by Mukhin and the second author. We also interpret the three-term recurrence relations in the M-system of type $G_2$ as exchange relations in a cluster algebra constructed by Hernandez and Leclerc.