A note on abelian returns in rotation words

Pursuing the study started by Rigo, Salimov and Vandomme, we use elementary number-theoretic techniques to characterize rotation words having a finite set of abelian returns to all prefixes. We also make the connection between the three gap theorem and the number of semi-abelian returns for Sturmian words, simplifying some arguments developed by Puzynina and Zamboni.