English

Rauzy dimension and finite-state dimension

Information Theory 2025-06-09 v2 Formal Languages and Automata Theory math.IT

Abstract

In 1976, Rauzy studied two complexity functions, β\underline{\beta} and β\overline{\beta}, for infinite sequences over a finite alphabet. The function β\underline{\beta} achieves its maximum precisely for Borel normal sequences, while β\overline{\beta} reaches its minimum for sequences that, when added to any Borel normal sequence, result in another Borel normal sequence. We establish a connection between Rauzy's complexity functions, β\underline{\beta} and β\overline{\beta}, and the notions of non-aligned block entropy, h\underline{h} and h\overline{h}, by providing sharp upper and lower bounds for h\underline{h} in terms of β\underline{\beta}, and sharp upper and lower bounds for h\overline{h} in terms of β\overline{\beta}. We adopt a probabilistic approach by considering an infinite sequence of random variables over a finite alphabet. The proof relies on a new characterization of non-aligned block entropies, h\overline{h} and h\underline{h}, in terms of Shannon's conditional entropy. The bounds imply that sequences with h=0\overline{h} = 0 coincide with those for which β=0\overline{\beta} = 0. We also show that the non-aligned block entropies, h\underline{h} and h\overline{h}, are essentially subadditive.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2406.18383,
  title  = {Rauzy dimension and finite-state dimension},
  author = {Verónica Becher and Olivier Carton and Santiago Figueira},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2406.18383},
  year   = {2025}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-28T17:19:58.532Z