16 research outputs found
Specular sets
We introduce the notion of specular sets which are subsets of groups called
here specular and which form a natural generalization of free groups. These
sets are an abstract generalization of the natural codings of linear
involutions. We prove several results concerning the subgroups generated by
return words and by maximal bifix codes in these sets.Comment: arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1405.352
Return words of linear involutions and fundamental groups
We investigate the natural codings of linear involutions. We deduce from the
geometric representation of linear involutions as Poincar\'e maps of measured
foliations a suitable definition of return words which yields that the set of
first return words to a given word is a symmetric basis of the free group on
the underlying alphabet . The set of first return words with respect to a
subgroup of finite index of the free group on is also proved to be a
symmetric basis of
Comma-free Codes Over Finite Alphabets
Comma-free codes have been widely studied in the last sixty years, from points of view as diverse as biology, information theory and combinatorics. We develop new methods to study comma-free codes achieving the maximum size, given the cardinality of the alphabet and the length of the words. Specifically, we are interested in counting the number of such codes. We provide (two different proofs for) a closed-formula. The approach introduced is further developed to tackle well-known sub-families of comma-free codes, such as self-complementary and (generalisations of) non-overlapping codes. We also study codes that are not contained in strictly larger ones. For instance, we determine the maximal size of self-complementary comma-free codes and the number of codes reaching the bound. We provide a characterisation of-letter non-overlapping codes (over an alphabet of cardinality n), which allows us to devise the number of such codes that are not contained in any strictly larger one. Our approach mixes combinatorial and graph-theoretical arguments