We consider (weighted) rational expressions to denote series over Cartesian products of monoids. We define an operator | to build multitape expressions such as (a + | x + b + | y) * . We introduce expansions, which generalize the concept of derivative of a rational expression, but relieved from the need of a free monoid. We propose an algorithm based on expansions to build multitape automata from multitape expressions.
Changes:2016-07-25 Appendix A.4 was added, showing how to compute the constant term and the derivatives for the tuple operator. Sect. 5 was adapted accordingly.