Crucial and bicrucial permutations with respect to arithmetic monotone patterns

A pattern $\tau$ is a permutation, and an arithmetic occurrence of $\tau$ in (another) permutation $\pi=\pi_1\pi_2...\pi_n$ is a subsequence $\pi_{i_1}\pi_{i_2}...\pi_{i_m}$ of $\pi$ that is order isomorphic to $\tau$ where the numbers $i_1<i_2<...<i_m$ form an arithmetic progression. A permutation is $(k,\ell)$-crucial if it avoids arithmetically the patterns $12... k$ and $\ell(\ell-1)... 1$ but its extension to the right by any element does not avoid arithmetically these patterns. A $(k,\ell)$-crucial permutation that cannot be extended to the left without creating an arithmetic occurrence of $12... k$ or $\ell(\ell-1)... 1$ is called $(k,\ell)$-bicrucial. In this paper we prove that arbitrary long $(k,\ell)$-crucial and $(k,\ell)$-bicrucial permutations exist for any $k,\ell\geq 3$. Moreover, we show that the minimal length of a $(k,\ell)$-crucial permutation is $\max(k,\ell)(\min(k,\ell)-1)$, while the minimal length of a $(k,\ell)$-bicrucial permutation is at most $2\max(k,\ell)(\min(k,\ell)-1)$, again for $k,\ell\geq3$

On uniform recurrence of a direct product

special issue dedicated to the second edition of the conference AutoMathA: from Mathematics to Application

Computing the kk-binomial complexity of the Thue--Morse word

Two words are $k$-binomially equivalent whenever they share the same subwords, i.e., subsequences, of length at most $k$ with the same multiplicities. This is a refinement of both abelian equivalence and the Simon congruence. The $k$-binomial complexity of an infinite word $\mathbf{x}$ maps the integer $n$ to the number of classes in the quotient, by this $k$-binomial equivalence relation, of the set of factors of length $n$ occurring in $\mathbf{x}$. This complexity measure has not been investigated very much. In this paper, we characterize the $k$-binomial complexity of the Thue--Morse word. The result is striking, compared to more familiar complexity functions. Although the Thue--Morse word is aperiodic, its $k$-binomial complexity eventually takes only two values. In this paper, we first obtain general results about the number of occurrences of subwords appearing in iterates of the form $\Psi^\ell(w)$ for an arbitrary morphism $\Psi$. We also thoroughly describe the factors of the Thue--Morse word by introducing a relevant new equivalence relation

Monochromatic arithmetic progressions in automatic sequences with group structure

We determine asymptotic growth rates for lengths of monochromatic arithmetic progressions in certain automatic sequences. In particular, we look at (one-sided) fixed points of aperiodic, primitive, bijective substitutions and spin substitutions, which are generalisations of the Thue-Morse and Rudin-Shapiro substitutions, respectively. For such infinite words, we show that there exists a subsequence {dn} of differences along which the maximum length A (dn) of a monochromatic arithmetic progression (with fixed difference dn) grows at least polynomially in dn. Explicit upper and lower bounds for the growth exponent can be derived from a finite group associated to the substitution. As an application, we obtain bounds for a van der Waerden-type number for a class of colourings parametrised by the size of the alphabet and the length of the substitution

Overlap-Free Words and Generalizations

The study of combinatorics on words dates back at least to the beginning of the 20th century and the work of Axel Thue. Thue was the first to give an example of an infinite word over a three letter alphabet that contains no squares (identical adjacent blocks) xx. This result was eventually used to solve some longstanding open problems in algebra and has remarkable connections to other areas of mathematics and computer science as well. This thesis will consider several different generalizations of Thue's work. In particular we shall study the properties of infinite words avoiding various types of repetitions. In Chapter 1 we introduce the theory of combinatorics on words. We present the basic definitions and give an historical survey of the area. In Chapter 2 we consider the work of Thue in more detail. We present various well-known properties of the Thue-Morse word and give some generalizations. We examine Fife's characterization of the infinite overlap-free words and give a simpler proof of this result. We also present some applications to transcendental number theory, generalizing a classical result of Mahler. In Chapter 3 we generalize a result of Seebold by showing that the only infinite 7/3-power-free binary words that can be obtained by iterating a morphism are the Thue-Morse word and its complement. In Chapter 4 we continue our study of overlap-free and 7/3-power-free words. We discuss the squares that can appear as subwords of these words. We also show that it is possible to construct infinite 7/3-power-free binary words containing infinitely many overlaps. In Chapter 5 we consider certain questions of language theory. In particular, we examine the context-freeness of the set of words containing overlaps. We show that over a three-letter alphabet, this set is not context-free, and over a two-letter alphabet, we show that this set cannot be unambiguously context-free. In Chapter 6 we construct infinite words over a four-letter alphabet that avoid squares in any arithmetic progression of odd difference. Our constructions are based on properties of the paperfolding words. We use these infinite words to construct non-repetitive tilings of the integer lattice. In Chapter 7 we consider approximate squares rather than squares. We give constructions of infinite words that avoid such approximate squares. In Chapter 8 we conclude the work and present some open problems