135 research outputs found
On a generalization of Abelian equivalence and complexity of infinite words
In this paper we introduce and study a family of complexity functions of
infinite words indexed by k \in \ints ^+ \cup {+\infty}. Let k \in \ints ^+
\cup {+\infty} and be a finite non-empty set. Two finite words and
in are said to be -Abelian equivalent if for all of length
less than or equal to the number of occurrences of in is equal to
the number of occurrences of in This defines a family of equivalence
relations on bridging the gap between the usual notion of
Abelian equivalence (when ) and equality (when We show that
the number of -Abelian equivalence classes of words of length grows
polynomially, although the degree is exponential in Given an infinite word
\omega \in A^\nats, we consider the associated complexity function \mathcal
{P}^{(k)}_\omega :\nats \rightarrow \nats which counts the number of
-Abelian equivalence classes of factors of of length We show
that the complexity function is intimately linked with
periodicity. More precisely we define an auxiliary function q^k: \nats
\rightarrow \nats and show that if for
some k \in \ints ^+ \cup {+\infty} and the is ultimately
periodic. Moreover if is aperiodic, then if and only if is Sturmian. We also
study -Abelian complexity in connection with repetitions in words. Using
Szemer\'edi's theorem, we show that if has bounded -Abelian
complexity, then for every D\subset \nats with positive upper density and for
every positive integer there exists a -Abelian power occurring in
at some position $j\in D.
On the maximal number of cubic subwords in a string
We investigate the problem of the maximum number of cubic subwords (of the
form ) in a given word. We also consider square subwords (of the form
). The problem of the maximum number of squares in a word is not well
understood. Several new results related to this problem are produced in the
paper. We consider two simple problems related to the maximum number of
subwords which are squares or which are highly repetitive; then we provide a
nontrivial estimation for the number of cubes. We show that the maximum number
of squares such that is not a primitive word (nonprimitive squares) in
a word of length is exactly , and the
maximum number of subwords of the form , for , is exactly .
In particular, the maximum number of cubes in a word is not greater than
either. Using very technical properties of occurrences of cubes, we improve
this bound significantly. We show that the maximum number of cubes in a word of
length is between and . (In particular, we improve the
lower bound from the conference version of the paper.)Comment: 14 page
Powers in a class of A-strict standard episturmian words
This paper concerns a specific class of strict standard episturmian words
whose directive words resemble those of characteristic Sturmian words. In
particular, we explicitly determine all integer powers occurring in such
infinite words, extending recent results of Damanik and Lenz (2003), who
studied powers in Sturmian words. The key tools in our analysis are canonical
decompositions and a generalization of singular words, which were originally
defined for the ubiquitous Fibonacci word. Our main results are demonstrated
via some examples, including the -bonacci word: a generalization of the
Fibonacci word to a -letter alphabet ().Comment: 26 pages; extended version of a paper presented at the 5th
International Conference on Words, Montreal, Canada, September 13-17, 200
Ten Conferences WORDS: Open Problems and Conjectures
In connection to the development of the field of Combinatorics on Words, we
present a list of open problems and conjectures that were stated during the ten
last meetings WORDS. We wish to continually update the present document by
adding informations concerning advances in problems solving
Avoiding Abelian powers in binary words with bounded Abelian complexity
The notion of Abelian complexity of infinite words was recently used by the
three last authors to investigate various Abelian properties of words. In
particular, using van der Waerden's theorem, they proved that if a word avoids
Abelian -powers for some integer , then its Abelian complexity is
unbounded. This suggests the following question: How frequently do Abelian
-powers occur in a word having bounded Abelian complexity? In particular,
does every uniformly recurrent word having bounded Abelian complexity begin in
an Abelian -power? While this is true for various classes of uniformly
recurrent words, including for example the class of all Sturmian words, in this
paper we show the existence of uniformly recurrent binary words, having bounded
Abelian complexity, which admit an infinite number of suffixes which do not
begin in an Abelian square. We also show that the shift orbit closure of any
infinite binary overlap-free word contains a word which avoids Abelian cubes in
the beginning. We also consider the effect of morphisms on Abelian complexity
and show that the morphic image of a word having bounded Abelian complexity has
bounded Abelian complexity. Finally, we give an open problem on avoidability of
Abelian squares in infinite binary words and show that it is equivalent to a
well-known open problem of Pirillo-Varricchio and Halbeisen-Hungerb\"uhler.Comment: 16 pages, submitte
Local Complexity of Delone Sets and Crystallinity
This paper characterizes when a Delone set X is an ideal crystal in terms of
restrictions on the number of its local patches of a given size or on the
hetereogeneity of their distribution. Let N(T) count the number of
translation-inequivalent patches of radius T in X and let M(T) be the minimum
radius such that every closed ball of radius M(T) contains the center of a
patch of every one of these kinds. We show that for each of these functions
there is a `gap in the spectrum' of possible growth rates between being bounded
and having linear growth, and that having linear growth is equivalent to X
being an ideal crystal. Explicitly, for N(T), if R is the covering radius of X
then either N(T) is bounded or N(T) >= T/2R for all T>0. The constant 1/2R in
this bound is best possible in all dimensions. For M(T), either M(T) is bounded
or M(T) >= T/3 for all T>0. Examples show that the constant 1/3 in this bound
cannot be replaced by any number exceeding 1/2. We also show that every
aperiodic Delone set X has M(T) >= c(n)T for all T>0, for a certain constant
c(n) which depends on the dimension n of X and is greater than 1/3 when n > 1.Comment: 26 pages. Uses latexsym and amsfonts package
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