48,927 research outputs found
On the combinatorics of finite words
AbstractIn this paper we consider a combinatorial method for the analysis of finite words recently introduced in Colosimo and de Luca (Special factors in biological strings, preprint 97/42, Dipt. Matematica, Univ. di Roma) for the study of biological macromolecules. The method is based on the analysis of (right) special factors of a given word. A factor u of a word w is special if there exist at least two occurrences of the factor u in w followed on the right by two distinct letters. We show that in the combinatorics of finite words two parameters play an essential role. The first, denoted by R, represents the minimal integer such that there do not exist special factors of w of length R. The second, that we denote by K, is the minimal length of a factor of w which cannot be extended on the right in a factor of w. Some new results are proved. In particular, a new characterization in terms of special factors and of R and K is given for the set PER of all words w having two periods p and q which are coprimes and such that ¦w¦ = p + q − 2
An Equivalence Relation on A Set of Words of Finite Length
In this work, we study several equivalence relations induced from the
partitions of the sets of words of finite length. We have results on words over
finite fields extending the work of Bacher (2002, Europ. J. Combinatorics, {\bf
23}, 141-147). Cardinalities of its equivalence classes and explicit
relationships between two words are determined. Moreover, we deal with words of
finite length over the ring where is a positive
integer. We have arithmetic results parallel to Bacher's.Comment: 16 page
Repetitions in beta-integers
Classical crystals are solid materials containing arbitrarily long periodic
repetitions of a single motif. In this paper, we study the maximal possible
repetition of the same motif occurring in beta-integers -- one dimensional
models of quasicrystals. We are interested in beta-integers realizing only a
finite number of distinct distances between neighboring elements. In such a
case, the problem may be reformulated in terms of combinatorics on words as a
study of the index of infinite words coding beta-integers. We will solve a
particular case for beta being a quadratic non-simple Parry number.Comment: 11 page
Transition Property For Cube-Free Words
We study cube-free words over arbitrary non-unary finite alphabets and prove
the following structural property: for every pair of -ary cube-free
words, if can be infinitely extended to the right and can be infinitely
extended to the left respecting the cube-freeness property, then there exists a
"transition" word over the same alphabet such that is cube free. The
crucial case is the case of the binary alphabet, analyzed in the central part
of the paper.
The obtained "transition property", together with the developed technique,
allowed us to solve cube-free versions of three old open problems by Restivo
and Salemi. Besides, it has some further implications for combinatorics on
words; e.g., it implies the existence of infinite cube-free words of very big
subword (factor) complexity.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figure
A characterization of fine words over a finite alphabet
To any infinite word w over a finite alphabet A we can associate two infinite
words min(w) and max(w) such that any prefix of min(w) (resp. max(w)) is the
lexicographically smallest (resp. greatest) amongst the factors of w of the
same length. We say that an infinite word w over A is "fine" if there exists an
infinite word u such that, for any lexicographic order, min(w) = au where a =
min(A). In this paper, we characterize fine words; specifically, we prove that
an infinite word w is fine if and only if w is either a "strict episturmian
word" or a strict "skew episturmian word''. This characterization generalizes a
recent result of G. Pirillo, who proved that a fine word over a 2-letter
alphabet is either an (aperiodic) Sturmian word, or an ultimately periodic (but
not periodic) infinite word, all of whose factors are (finite) Sturmian.Comment: 16 pages; presented at the conference on "Combinatorics, Automata and
Number Theory", Liege, Belgium, May 8-19, 2006 (to appear in a special issue
of Theoretical Computer Science
THREE COMPLEXITY FUNCTIONS
International audienceFor an extensive range of infinite words, and the associated symbolic dynamical systems, we compute, together with the usual language complexity function counting the finite words, the minimal and maximal complexity functions we get by replacing finite words by finite patterns, or words with holes. Given a language L on a finite alphabet A, the complexity function p L (n) counts for every n the number of factors of length n of L; this is a very useful notion, both inside word combinatorics and for the study of symbolic dynamical systems, see for example the survey [7]; of particular interest are the infinite words which are determined by the complexity of their language, those words for which p L (n) ≤ n for at least one n are ultimately periodic [15], while the Sturmian words, of complexity n + 1 for all n, are natural codings of rotations, see [6, 16], or Chapter 6 of [17], and Section 4 below. Note that the complexity is exponential when the language has positive topological entropy, and has not been widely used for that range of languages. To study further the combinatorial properties of infinite words, the notion of maximal pattern complexity, denoted by p
The Identity Correspondence Problem and its Applications
In this paper we study several closely related fundamental problems for words
and matrices. First, we introduce the Identity Correspondence Problem (ICP):
whether a finite set of pairs of words (over a group alphabet) can generate an
identity pair by a sequence of concatenations. We prove that ICP is undecidable
by a reduction of Post's Correspondence Problem via several new encoding
techniques.
In the second part of the paper we use ICP to answer a long standing open
problem concerning matrix semigroups: "Is it decidable for a finitely generated
semigroup S of square integral matrices whether or not the identity matrix
belongs to S?". We show that the problem is undecidable starting from dimension
four even when the number of matrices in the generator is 48. From this fact,
we can immediately derive that the fundamental problem of whether a finite set
of matrices generates a group is also undecidable. We also answer several
question for matrices over different number fields. Apart from the application
to matrix problems, we believe that the Identity Correspondence Problem will
also be useful in identifying new areas of undecidable problems in abstract
algebra, computational questions in logic and combinatorics on words.Comment: We have made some proofs clearer and fixed an important typo from the
published journal version of this article, see footnote 3 on page 1
- …