Dold-Gauss Congruences, Norm Descent, and Rational Rigidity

Abstract

We develop a Witt--Hadamard calculus for Euler products that unifies the classical Gauss congruences with their modern refinement, the Dold congruences. Within this framework we prove \emph{norm descent}: Dold congruences are functorial under finite extensions and preserved by prime--ideal norms $N_{K/\mathbb{Q}}$, yielding integer ghosts from algebraic ones. We extend the theory from $\mathbb{Z}$ to Dedekind domains, and show that integrality is stable under both Hadamard and Witt products. Two rigidity theorems lie at the core: a \emph{cyclotomic residues theorem}, asserting that if the logarithmic derivative has only cyclotomic poles then integrality forces rationality; and a stronger \emph{Dold$^{+}$ rigidity theorem}, showing that any algebraic series satisfying refined Dold congruences is necessarily rational. These results sharpen the Gauss--Dold picture: ordinary congruences enforce integrality, while the strengthened form collapses algebraic cases to rational ones. Applications include prime--ideal ladders in number fields and exact product laws for dynamical zeta functions, illustrated for subshifts of finite type and circle doubling.