Normal, Abby Normal, Prefix Normal

A prefix normal word is a binary word with the property that no substring has more 1s than the prefix of the same length. This class of words is important in the context of binary jumbled pattern matching. In this paper we present results about the number $pnw(n)$ of prefix normal words of length $n$, showing that $pnw(n) =\Omega\left(2^{n - c\sqrt{n\ln n}}\right)$ for some $c$ and $pnw(n) = O \left(\frac{2^n (\ln n)^2}{n}\right)$. We introduce efficient algorithms for testing the prefix normal property and a "mechanical algorithm" for computing prefix normal forms. We also include games which can be played with prefix normal words. In these games Alice wishes to stay normal but Bob wants to drive her "abnormal" -- we discuss which parameter settings allow Alice to succeed.Comment: Accepted at FUN '1

Reconstruction of Trees from Jumbled and Weighted Subtrees

Let T be an edge-labeled graph, where the labels are from a finite alphabet Sigma. For a subtree U of T the Parikh vector of U is a vector of length |Sigma| which specifies the multiplicity of each label in U. We ask when T can be reconstructed from the multiset of Parikh vectors of all its subtrees, or all of its paths, or all of its maximal paths. We consider the analogous problems for weighted trees. We show how several well-known reconstruction problems on labeled strings, weighted strings and point sets on a line can be included in this framework. We present reconstruction algorithms and non-reconstructibility results, and extend the polynomial method, previously applied to jumbled strings [Acharya et al., SIAM J. on Discr. Math, 2015] and weighted strings [Bansal et al., CPM 2004], to deal with general trees and special tree classes

On the Parikh-de-Bruijn grid

We introduce the Parikh-de-Bruijn grid, a graph whose vertices are fixed-order Parikh vectors, and whose edges are given by a simple shift operation. This graph gives structural insight into the nature of sets of Parikh vectors as well as that of the Parikh set of a given string. We show its utility by proving some results on Parikh-de-Bruijn strings, the abelian analog of de-Bruijn sequences.Comment: 18 pages, 3 figures, 1 tabl

Bubble-Flip---A New Generation Algorithm for Prefix Normal Words

We present a new recursive generation algorithm for prefix normal words. These are binary strings with the property that no substring has more 1s than the prefix of the same length. The new algorithm uses two operations on binary strings, which exploit certain properties of prefix normal words in a smart way. We introduce infinite prefix normal words and show that one of the operations used by the algorithm, if applied repeatedly to extend the string, produces an ultimately periodic infinite word, which is prefix normal. Moreover, based on the original finite word, we can predict both the length and the density of an ultimate period of this infinite word.Comment: 30 pages, 3 figures, accepted in Theoret. Comp. Sc.. This is the journal version of the paper with the same title at LATA 2018 (12th International Conference on Language and Automata Theory and Applications, Tel Aviv, April 9-11, 2018

Algorithms for Jumbled Pattern Matching in Strings

The Parikh vector p(s) of a string s is defined as the vector of multiplicities of the characters. Parikh vector q occurs in s if s has a substring t with p(t)=q. We present two novel algorithms for searching for a query q in a text s. One solves the decision problem over a binary text in constant time, using a linear size index of the text. The second algorithm, for a general finite alphabet, finds all occurrences of a given Parikh vector q and has sub-linear expected time complexity; we present two variants, which both use a linear size index of the text.Comment: 18 pages, 9 figures; article accepted for publication in the International Journal of Foundations of Computer Scienc

Fast and Simple Jumbled Indexing for Binary Run-Length Encoded Strings

Important papers have appeared recently on the problem of indexing binary strings for jumbled pattern matching, and further lowering the time bounds in terms of the input size would now be a breakthrough with broad implications. We can still make progress on the problem, however, by considering other natural parameters. Badkobeh et al. (IPL, 2013) and Amir et al. (TCS, 2016) gave algorithms that index a binary string in O(n + r^2 log r) time, where n is the length and r is the number of runs, and Giaquinta and Grabowski (IPL, 2013) gave one that runs in O(n + r^2) time. In this paper we propose a new and very simple algorithm that also runs in O(n + r^2) time and can be extended either so that the index returns the position of a match (if there is one), or so that the algorithm uses only O(n) bits of space instead of O(n) words

Reconstruction of Trees from Jumbled and Weighted Subtrees

Let T be an edge-labeled graph, where the labels are from a finite alphabet Sigma. For a subtree U of T the Parikh vector of U is a vector of length |Sigma| which specifies the multiplicity of each label in U. We ask when T can be reconstructed from the multiset of Parikh vectors of all its subtrees, or all of its paths, or all of its maximal paths. We consider the analogous problems for weighted trees. We show how several well-known reconstruction problems on labeled strings, weighted strings and point sets on a line can be included in this framework. We present reconstruction algorithms and non-reconstructibility results, and extend the polynomial method, previously applied to jumbled strings [Acharya et al., SIAM J. on Discr. Math, 2015] and weighted strings [Bansal et al., CPM 2004], to deal with general trees and special tree classes