An optimal bound on the solution sets of one-variable word equations and its consequences
Combinatorics
2018-05-25 v1
Abstract
We solve two long-standing open problems on word equations. Firstly, we prove that a one-variable word equation with constants has either at most three or an infinite number of solutions. The existence of such a bound had been conjectured, and the bound three is optimal. Secondly, we consider independent systems of three-variable word equations without constants. If such a system has a nonperiodic solution, then this system of equations is at most of size 17. Although probably not optimal, this is the first finite bound found. However, the conjecture of that bound being actually two still remains open.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1805.09535,
title = {An optimal bound on the solution sets of one-variable word equations and its consequences},
author = {Dirk Nowotka and Aleksi Saarela},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1805.09535},
year = {2018}
}
Comments
16 pages. To appear in the proceedings of the 45th International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2018)