Abstract
It is well known that real numbers with a purely periodic decimal expansion are rationals having, when reduced, a denominator coprime with $10$. The aim of this paper is to extend this result to beta-expansions with a Pisot base beta which is not necessarily a unit. We characterize real numbers having a purely periodic expansion in such a base. This characterization is given in terms of an explicit set, called a generalized Rauzy fractal, which is shown to be a graph-directed self-affine compact subset of non-zero measure which belongs to the direct product of Euclidean and $p$-adic spaces.