English

Relative position in binary substitutions

Combinatorics 2024-10-17 v1 Discrete Mathematics

Abstract

Given an infinite word w{\bf w} on a finite alphabet, an immediate question arises:~can we understand the frequency of letters in w{\bf w}\,? For words that are the fixed points of substitutions, the answer to this question is often `yes' -- the details and methods of these answers have been well-documented. In this paper, toward a better-understanding of the fixed points of binary substitutions, we delve deeper by investigating, in fine detail, the position of letters by defining various position functions and proving results about their behavior. Our analysis reveals new information about the Fibonacci substitution and the extended Pisa family of substitutions, as well as a new characterization of the Thue--Morse sequence.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2410.12173,
  title  = {Relative position in binary substitutions},
  author = {Michael Coons and Christopher Ramsey and Nicolae Strungaru},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2410.12173},
  year   = {2024}
}

Comments

30 pages

R2 v1 2026-06-28T19:23:32.646Z