Related papers: A Note on Symmetries in the Rauzy Graph and Factor…
We consider several novel aspects of unique factorization in formal languages. We reprove the familiar fact that the set uf(L) of words having unique factorization into elements of L is regular if L is regular, and from this deduce an…
In this paper we study the asymptotic behaviour of two relatively new complexity functions defined on infinite words and their relationship to periodicity. Given a factor $u$ of an infinite word $x$, we say $u$ is closed if it is a letter…
An infinite word has the property $R_m$ if every factor has exactly $m$ return words. Vuillon showed that $R_2$ characterizes Sturmian words. We prove that a word satisfies $R_m$ if its complexity function is $(m-1)n+1$ and if it contains…
In 2005, Rampersad and the second author proved a number of theorems about infinite words x with the property that if w is any sufficiently long finite factor of x, then its reversal w^R is not a factor of x. In this note we revisit these…
A string is said to be closed if its length is one, or if it has a non-empty factor that occurs both as a prefix and as a suffix of the string, but does not occur elsewhere. The notion of closed words was introduced by [Fici, WORDS 2011].…
We construct an Arnoux-Rauzy word for which the set of all differences of two abelianized factors is equal to $\mathbb{Z}^3$. In particular, the imbalance of this word is infinite - and its Rauzy fractal is unbounded in all directions of…
We establish several recurrence relations and an explicit formula for V(n), the number of factorizations of the length-n prefix of the Fibonacci word into a (not necessarily strictly) decreasing sequence of standard Fibonacci words. In…
We describe factor frequencies of the generalized Thue-Morse word t_{b,m} defined for integers b greater than 1, m greater than 0 as the fixed point starting in 0 of the morphism \phi_{b,m} given by \phi_{b,m}(k)=k(k+1)...(k+b-1), where k =…
For integers $r,t\geq2$ and $n\geq1$ let $f_r(t,n)$ be the minimum, over all factorizations of the complete $r$-uniform hypergraph of order $n$ into $t$ factors $H_1,\dots,H_t$, of $\sum_{i=1}^tc(H_i)$ where $c(H_i)$ is the number of…
Trapezoidal words are words having at most $n+1$ distinct factors of length $n$ for every $n\ge 0$. They therefore encompass finite Sturmian words. We give combinatorial characterizations of trapezoidal words and exhibit a formula for their…
The factor complexity ${\mathcal C}_{\mathbf u}$ of a sequence ${\mathbf u} = u_0u_1u_2 \cdots$ over a finite alphabet counts the number of factors of length $n$ occurring in $\mathbf u$, i.e., ${\mathcal C}_{\mathbf u}(n) = \#{\mathcal…
We say that a finite factor $f$ of a word $w$ is \emph{imaged} if there exists a non-erasing morphism $m$, distinct from the identity, such that $w$ contains $m(f)$. We show that every infinite word contains an imaged factor of length at…
We study the properties of the sequence of words $(B_i)$, where $B_1 = 101$ and $B_{i+1} = B_i C_i$ for $i \geq 1$, where $C_i$ is $B_i$ with the first $i$ symbols removed, and the infinite binary sequence ${\bf b} = 10101101011011101…
In this paper we consider the following problems: how many different subsets of Sigma^n can occur as set of all length-n factors of a finite word? If a subset is representable, how long a word do we need to represent it? How many such…
The inverse relationship between the length of a word and the frequency of its use, first identified by G.K. Zipf in 1935, is a classic empirical law that holds across a wide range of human languages. We demonstrate that length is one…
We study how much injective morphisms can increase the repetitiveness of a given word. This question has a few possible variations depending on the meaning of ``repetitiveness''. We concentrate on fractional exponents of finite words and…
Context-free grammars are not able to model cross-serial dependencies in natural languages. To overcome this issue, Seki et al. introduced a generalization called $m$-multiple context-free grammars ($m$-MCFGs), which deal with $m$-tuples of…
The non-repetitive complexity $nr\mathcal{C}_{\bf u}$ and the initial non-repetitive complexity $inr\mathcal{C}_{\bf u}$ are functions which reflect the structure of the infinite word ${\bf u}$ with respect to the repetitions of factors of…
We study ternary sequences associated with a multidimensional continued fraction algorithm introduced by the first author. The algorithm is defined by two matrices and we show that it is measurably isomorphic to the shift on the set…
The family of graphs of reduced words of a certain subcollection of permutations in the union $\cup_{n\geq 4}\frak{S}_{n}$ of symmetic groups is investigated. The subcollection is characterised by the hook cycle type $(n-2,1,1)$ with…