56 research outputs found
A geometrical characterization of factors of multidimensional Billiard words and some applications
AbstractWe consider Billiard words in alphabets with k>2 letters. Such words are associated with some k-dimensional positive vector Ī±ā=(Ī±1,Ī±2,ā¦,Ī±k). The language of these words is already known in the usual case, i.e. when the Ī±j are linearly independent over Q and so for their inverses. Here we study the language of these words when there exist some linear relationships. We give a new geometrical characterization of the factors of Billiard words. As a consequence, we get some results on the associated language, and on the complexity and palindromic complexity of these words. The situation is quite different from the usual case. The languages of two distinct Billiard words with the same direction generally have a finite intersection. As examples, we get some Standard Billiard words of three letters without any palindromic factor of even length, or Billiard words of three letters whose palindromic factors have a bounded length. These results are obtained by geometrical methods
A characterization of balanced episturmian sequences
It is well known that Sturmian sequences are the aperiodic sequences that are
balanced over a 2-letter alphabet. They are also characterized by their
complexity: they have exactly factors of length . One possible
generalization of Sturmian sequences is the set of infinite sequences over a
-letter alphabet, , which are closed under reversal and have at
most one right special factor for each length. This is the set of episturmian
sequences. These are not necessarily balanced over a -letter alphabet, nor
are they necessarily aperiodic. In this paper, we characterize balanced
episturmian sequences, periodic or not, and prove Fraenkel's conjecture for the
class of episturmian sequences. This conjecture was first introduced in number
theory and has remained unsolved for more than 30 years. It states that for a
fixed , there is only one way to cover by Beatty sequences. The
problem can be translated to combinatorics on words: for a -letter alphabet,
there exists only one balanced sequence up to letter permutation that has
different letter frequencies
On the Structure of Bispecial Sturmian Words
A balanced word is one in which any two factors of the same length contain
the same number of each letter of the alphabet up to one. Finite binary
balanced words are called Sturmian words. A Sturmian word is bispecial if it
can be extended to the left and to the right with both letters remaining a
Sturmian word. There is a deep relation between bispecial Sturmian words and
Christoffel words, that are the digital approximations of Euclidean segments in
the plane. In 1997, J. Berstel and A. de Luca proved that \emph{palindromic}
bispecial Sturmian words are precisely the maximal internal factors of
\emph{primitive} Christoffel words. We extend this result by showing that
bispecial Sturmian words are precisely the maximal internal factors of
\emph{all} Christoffel words. Our characterization allows us to give an
enumerative formula for bispecial Sturmian words. We also investigate the
minimal forbidden words for the language of Sturmian words.Comment: arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1204.167
Factor versus palindromic complexity of uniformly recurrent infinite words
We study the relation between the palindromic and factor complexity of
infinite words. We show that for uniformly recurrent words one has P(n)+P(n+1)
\leq \Delta C(n) + 2, for all n \in N. For a large class of words it is a
better estimate of the palindromic complexity in terms of the factor complexity
then the one presented by Allouche et al. We provide several examples of
infinite words for which our estimate reaches its upper bound. In particular,
we derive an explicit prescription for the palindromic complexity of infinite
words coding r-interval exchange transformations. If the permutation \pi
connected with the transformation is given by \pi(k)=r+1-k for all k, then
there is exactly one palindrome of every even length, and exactly r palindromes
of every odd length.Comment: 16 pages, submitted to Theoretical Computer Scienc
Extremal properties of (epi)Sturmian sequences and distribution modulo 1
Starting from a study of Y. Bugeaud and A. Dubickas (2005) on a question in
distribution of real numbers modulo 1 via combinatorics on words, we survey
some combinatorial properties of (epi)Sturmian sequences and distribution
modulo 1 in connection to their work. In particular we focus on extremal
properties of (epi)Sturmian sequences, some of which have been rediscovered
several times
Episturmian words: a survey
In this paper, we survey the rich theory of infinite episturmian words which
generalize to any finite alphabet, in a rather resembling way, the well-known
family of Sturmian words on two letters. After recalling definitions and basic
properties, we consider episturmian morphisms that allow for a deeper study of
these words. Some properties of factors are described, including factor
complexity, palindromes, fractional powers, frequencies, and return words. We
also consider lexicographical properties of episturmian words, as well as their
connection to the balance property, and related notions such as finite
episturmian words, Arnoux-Rauzy sequences, and "episkew words" that generalize
the skew words of Morse and Hedlund.Comment: 36 pages; major revision: improvements + new material + more
reference
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