The sequence of open and closed prefixes of a Sturmian word

A finite word is closed if it contains a factor that occurs both as a prefix and as a suffix but does not have internal occurrences, otherwise it is open. We are interested in the {\it oc-sequence} of a word, which is the binary sequence whose $n$-th element is $0$ if the prefix of length $n$ of the word is open, or $1$ if it is closed. We exhibit results showing that this sequence is deeply related to the combinatorial and periodic structure of a word. In the case of Sturmian words, we show that these are uniquely determined (up to renaming letters) by their oc-sequence. Moreover, we prove that the class of finite Sturmian words is a maximal element with this property in the class of binary factorial languages. We then discuss several aspects of Sturmian words that can be expressed through this sequence. Finally, we provide a linear-time algorithm that computes the oc-sequence of a finite word, and a linear-time algorithm that reconstructs a finite Sturmian word from its oc-sequence.Comment: Published in Advances in Applied Mathematics. Journal version of arXiv:1306.225

Relation between powers of factors and recurrence function characterizing Sturmian words

In this paper we use the relation of the index of an infinite aperiodic word and its recurrence function to give another characterization of Sturmian words. As a byproduct, we give a new proof of theorem describing the index of a Sturmian word in terms of the continued fraction expansion of its slope. This theorem was independently proved by Carpi and de Luca, and Damanik and Lenz.Comment: 11 page

Snake graphs and continued fractions

This paper is a sequel to our previous work in which we found a combinatorial realization of continued fractions as quotients of the number of perfect matchings of snake graphs. We show how this realization reflects the convergents of the continued fractions as well as the Euclidean division algorithm. We apply our findings to establish results on sums of squares, palindromic continued fractions, Markov numbers and other statements in elementary number theory

Periodicity, repetitions, and orbits of an automatic sequence

We revisit a technique of S. Lehr on automata and use it to prove old and new results in a simple way. We give a very simple proof of the 1986 theorem of Honkala that it is decidable whether a given k-automatic sequence is ultimately periodic. We prove that it is decidable whether a given k-automatic sequence is overlap-free (or squareefree, or cubefree, etc.) We prove that the lexicographically least sequence in the orbit closure of a k-automatic sequence is k-automatic, and use this last result to show that several related quantities, such as the critical exponent, irrationality measure, and recurrence quotient for Sturmian words with slope alpha, have automatic continued fraction expansions if alpha does.Comment: preliminary versio