The critical exponent of the Arshon words

Generalizing the results of Thue (for n = 2) and of Klepinin and Sukhanov (for n = 3), we prove that for all n greater than or equal to 2, the critical exponent of the Arshon word of order $n$ is given by (3n-2)/(2n-2), and this exponent is attained at position 1.Comment: 11 page

Subword complexity and power avoidance

We begin a systematic study of the relations between subword complexity of infinite words and their power avoidance. Among other things, we show that -- the Thue-Morse word has the minimum possible subword complexity over all overlap-free binary words and all $(\frac 73)$-power-free binary words, but not over all $(\frac 73)^+$-power-free binary words; -- the twisted Thue-Morse word has the maximum possible subword complexity over all overlap-free binary words, but no word has the maximum subword complexity over all $(\frac 73)$-power-free binary words; -- if some word attains the minimum possible subword complexity over all square-free ternary words, then one such word is the ternary Thue word; -- the recently constructed 1-2-bonacci word has the minimum possible subword complexity over all \textit{symmetric} square-free ternary words.Comment: 29 pages. Submitted to TC

Avoiding letter patterns in ternary square-free words

We consider special patterns of lengths 5 and 6 in a ternary alphabet. We show that some of them are unavoidable in square-free words and prove avoidability of the other ones. Proving the main results, we use Fibonacci words as codes of ternary words in some natural coding system and show that they can be decoded to square- free words avoiding the required patterns. Furthermore, we estimate the minimal local (critical) exponents of square-free words with such avoidance properties. © 2016, Australian National University. All rights reserved

Critical Exponents and Stabilizers of Infinite Words

This thesis concerns infinite words over finite alphabets. It contributes to two topics in this area: critical exponents and stabilizers. Let w be a right-infinite word defined over a finite alphabet. The critical exponent of w is the supremum of the set of exponents r such that w contains an r-power as a subword. Most of the thesis (Chapters 3 through 7) is devoted to critical exponents. Chapter 3 is a survey of previous research on critical exponents and repetitions in morphic words. In Chapter 4 we prove that every real number greater than 1 is the critical exponent of some right-infinite word over some finite alphabet. Our proof is constructive. In Chapter 5 we characterize critical exponents of pure morphic words generated by uniform binary morphisms. We also give an explicit formula to compute these critical exponents, based on a well-defined prefix of the infinite word. In Chapter 6 we generalize our results to pure morphic words generated by non-erasing morphisms over any finite alphabet. We prove that critical exponents of such words are algebraic, of a degree bounded by the alphabet size. Under certain conditions, our proof implies an algorithm for computing the critical exponent. We demonstrate our method by computing the critical exponent of some families of infinite words. In particular, in Chapter 7 we compute the critical exponent of the Arshon word of order n for n ≥ 3. The stabilizer of an infinite word w defined over a finite alphabet Σ is the set of morphisms f: Σ*→Σ* that fix w. In Chapter 8 we study various problems related to stabilizers and their generators. We show that over a binary alphabet, there exist stabilizers with at least n generators for all n. Over a ternary alphabet, the monoid of morphisms generating a given infinite word by iteration can be infinitely generated, even when the word is generated by iterating an invertible primitive morphism. Stabilizers of strict epistandard words are cyclic when non-trivial, while stabilizers of ultimately strict epistandard words are always non-trivial. For this latter family of words, we give a characterization of stabilizer elements. We conclude with a list of open problems, including a new problem that has not been addressed yet: the D0L repetition threshold

Subword complexity and power avoidance

We begin a systematic study of the relations between subword complexity of infinite words and their power avoidance. Among other things, we show that – the Thue–Morse word has the minimum possible subword complexity over all overlap-free binary words and all ( [Formula presented] )-power-free binary words, but not over all ( [Formula presented] )+-power-free binary words; – the twisted Thue–Morse word has the maximum possible subword complexity over all overlap-free binary words, but no word has the maximum subword complexity over all ( [Formula presented] )-power-free binary words; – if some word attains the minimum possible subword complexity over all square-free ternary words, then one such word is the ternary Thue word; – the recently constructed 1-2-bonacci word has the minimum possible subword complexity over all symmetric square-free ternary words. © 2018 Elsevier B.V

Tag-systems for the Hilbert curve

Hilbert words correspond to finite approximations of the Hilbert space filling curve. The Hilbert infinite word H is obtained as the limit of these words. It gives a description of the Hilbert (infinite) curve. We give a uniform tag-system to generate automatically H and, by showing that it is almost cube-free, we prove that it cannot be obtained by simply iterating a morphism

On minimal critical exponent of balanced sequences

We study the threshold between avoidable and unavoidable repetitions in infinite balanced sequences over finite alphabets. The conjecture stated by Rampersad, Shallit and Vandomme says that the minimal critical exponent of balanced sequences over the alphabet of size d≥5 equals [Formula presented]. This conjecture is known to hold for d∈{5,6,7,8,9,10}. We refute this conjecture by showing that the picture is different for bigger alphabets. We prove that critical exponents of balanced sequences over an alphabet of size d≥11 are lower bounded by [Formula presented] and this bound is attained for all even numbers d≥12. According to this result, we conjecture that the least critical exponent of a balanced sequence over d letters is [Formula presented] for all d≥11. © 2022075-02-2021-1387, 075-02-2022-877; České Vysoké Učení Technické v Praze, ČVUT: SGS20/183/OHK4/3T/14; Ministerstvo Školství, Mládeže a Tělovýchovy, MŠMT: CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/16_019/0000778; Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, MinobrnaukaThe second author was supported by Czech Technical University in Prague , through the project SGS20/183/OHK4/3T/14 . The first and the third authors were supported by The Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic through the project CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/16_019/0000778 . The fourth author acknowledges the support by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation (Ural Mathematical Center project No. 075-02-2021-1387 ) and by Ural Mathematical Center , project No. 075-02-2022-877

The critical exponent of the Arshon words

Generalizing the results of Thue (for n = 2) [Norske Vid. Selsk. Skr. Mat. Nat. Kl. 1 (1912) 1–67] and of Klepinin and Sukhanov (for n = 3) [Discrete Appl. Math. 114 (2001) 155–169], we prove that for all n ≥ 2, the critical exponent of the Arshon word of order n is given by (3n–2)/(2n–2), and this exponent is attained at position 1