Selected non-holonomic functions in lattice statistical mechanics and enumerative combinatorics

Abstract: We recall that the full susceptibility series of the Ising model, modulo powers of the prime 2, reduce to algebraic functions. We also recall the non-linear polynomial differential equation obtained by Tutte for the generating function of the q-coloured rooted triangulations by vertices, which is known to have algebraic solutions for all the numbers of the form $2 +2 \cos(j\pi/n)$, the holonomic status of the q= 4 being unclear. We focus on the analysis of the q= 4 case, showing that the corresponding series is quite certainly non-holonomic. Along the line of a previous work on the susceptibility of the Ising model, we consider this q=4 series modulo the first eight primes 2, 3, ... 19, and show that this (probably non-holonomic) function reduces, modulo these primes, to algebraic functions. We conjecture that this probably non-holonomic function reduces to algebraic functions modulo (almost) every prime, or power of prime numbers. This raises the question to see whether such remarkable non-holonomic functions can be seen as ratio of diagonals of rational functions, or algebraic, functions of diagonals of rational functions.