English

Prefix palindromic length of the Sierpinski word

Combinatorics 2022-03-15 v3 Discrete Mathematics Formal Languages and Automata Theory

Abstract

The prefix palindromic length pu(n)p_{\mathbf{u}}(n) of an infinite word u\mathbf{u} is the minimal number of concatenated palindromes needed to express the prefix of length nn of u\mathbf{u}. This function is surprisingly difficult to study; in particular, the conjecture that pu(n)p_{\mathbf{u}}(n) can be bounded only if u\mathbf{u} is ultimately periodic is open since 2013. A more recent conjecture concerns the prefix palindromic length of the period doubling word: it seems that it is not 22-regular, and if it is true, this would give a rare if not unique example of a non-regular function of a 22-automatic word. For some other kk-automatic words, however, the prefix palindromic length is known to be kk-regular. Here we add to the list of those words the Sierpinski word s\mathbf{s} and give a complete description of ps(n)p_{\mathbf{s}}(n).

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2201.09556,
  title  = {Prefix palindromic length of the Sierpinski word},
  author = {Dora V. Bulgakova and Anna E. Frid and Jérémy Scanvic},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2201.09556},
  year   = {2022}
}

Comments

Accepted to DLT 2022