70 research outputs found
Avoiding 2-binomial squares and cubes
Two finite words are 2-binomially equivalent if, for all words of
length at most 2, the number of occurrences of as a (scattered) subword of
is equal to the number of occurrences of in . This notion is a
refinement of the usual abelian equivalence. A 2-binomial square is a word
where and are 2-binomially equivalent.
In this paper, considering pure morphic words, we prove that 2-binomial
squares (resp. cubes) are avoidable over a 3-letter (resp. 2-letter) alphabet.
The sizes of the alphabets are optimal
Ten Conferences WORDS: Open Problems and Conjectures
In connection to the development of the field of Combinatorics on Words, we
present a list of open problems and conjectures that were stated during the ten
last meetings WORDS. We wish to continually update the present document by
adding informations concerning advances in problems solving
Avoiding Abelian powers in binary words with bounded Abelian complexity
The notion of Abelian complexity of infinite words was recently used by the
three last authors to investigate various Abelian properties of words. In
particular, using van der Waerden's theorem, they proved that if a word avoids
Abelian -powers for some integer , then its Abelian complexity is
unbounded. This suggests the following question: How frequently do Abelian
-powers occur in a word having bounded Abelian complexity? In particular,
does every uniformly recurrent word having bounded Abelian complexity begin in
an Abelian -power? While this is true for various classes of uniformly
recurrent words, including for example the class of all Sturmian words, in this
paper we show the existence of uniformly recurrent binary words, having bounded
Abelian complexity, which admit an infinite number of suffixes which do not
begin in an Abelian square. We also show that the shift orbit closure of any
infinite binary overlap-free word contains a word which avoids Abelian cubes in
the beginning. We also consider the effect of morphisms on Abelian complexity
and show that the morphic image of a word having bounded Abelian complexity has
bounded Abelian complexity. Finally, we give an open problem on avoidability of
Abelian squares in infinite binary words and show that it is equivalent to a
well-known open problem of Pirillo-Varricchio and Halbeisen-Hungerb\"uhler.Comment: 16 pages, submitte
Pattern avoidance: themes and variations
AbstractWe review results concerning words avoiding powers, abelian powers or patterns. In addition we collect/pose a large number of open problems
On a generalization of Abelian equivalence and complexity of infinite words
In this paper we introduce and study a family of complexity functions of
infinite words indexed by k \in \ints ^+ \cup {+\infty}. Let k \in \ints ^+
\cup {+\infty} and be a finite non-empty set. Two finite words and
in are said to be -Abelian equivalent if for all of length
less than or equal to the number of occurrences of in is equal to
the number of occurrences of in This defines a family of equivalence
relations on bridging the gap between the usual notion of
Abelian equivalence (when ) and equality (when We show that
the number of -Abelian equivalence classes of words of length grows
polynomially, although the degree is exponential in Given an infinite word
\omega \in A^\nats, we consider the associated complexity function \mathcal
{P}^{(k)}_\omega :\nats \rightarrow \nats which counts the number of
-Abelian equivalence classes of factors of of length We show
that the complexity function is intimately linked with
periodicity. More precisely we define an auxiliary function q^k: \nats
\rightarrow \nats and show that if for
some k \in \ints ^+ \cup {+\infty} and the is ultimately
periodic. Moreover if is aperiodic, then if and only if is Sturmian. We also
study -Abelian complexity in connection with repetitions in words. Using
Szemer\'edi's theorem, we show that if has bounded -Abelian
complexity, then for every D\subset \nats with positive upper density and for
every positive integer there exists a -Abelian power occurring in
at some position $j\in D.
Binary Patterns in Binary Cube-Free Words: Avoidability and Growth
The avoidability of binary patterns by binary cube-free words is investigated
and the exact bound between unavoidable and avoidable patterns is found. All
avoidable patterns are shown to be D0L-avoidable. For avoidable patterns, the
growth rates of the avoiding languages are studied. All such languages, except
for the overlap-free language, are proved to have exponential growth. The exact
growth rates of languages avoiding minimal avoidable patterns are approximated
through computer-assisted upper bounds. Finally, a new example of a
pattern-avoiding language of polynomial growth is given.Comment: 18 pages, 2 tables; submitted to RAIRO TIA (Special issue of Mons
Days 2012
Conferences WORDS, years 1997-2017: Open Problems and Conjectures
International audienceIn connection with the development of the field of Combinatorics on Words, we present a list of open problems and conjectures which were stated in the context of the eleven international meetings WORDS, which held from 1997 to 2017
- …