English

Infinite smooth Lyndon words

Combinatorics 2009-04-24 v2

Abstract

In a recent paper, Brlek, Jamet and Paquin showed that some extremal infinite smooth words are also infinite Lyndon words. This result raises a natural question: are they the only ones? If no, what do the infinite smooth words that are also Lyndon words look like? In this paper, we give the answer, proving that the only infinite smooth Lyndon words are m{a<b}m_{\{a<b\}}, with a,ba,b even, m{1<b}m_{\{1<b\}} and Δ11(m{1<b})\Delta^{-1}_1(m_{\{1<b\}}), with bb odd, where m\Am_\A is the minimal infinite smooth word with respect to the lexicographic order over a numerical alphabet \A\A and Δ\Delta is the run-length encoding function.

Cite

@article{arxiv.0805.2077,
  title  = {Infinite smooth Lyndon words},
  author = {Genevieve Paquin},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0805.2077},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

Extended version with the correct main result. There was an error in the first version

R2 v1 2026-06-21T10:40:26.334Z