Related papers: Fife's Theorem Revisited
We prove a Fife-like characterization of the infinite binary (7/3)-power-free words, by giving a finite automaton of 15 states that encodes all such words. As a consequence, we characterize all such words that are 2-automatic.
We show that a special case of the Feferman-Vaught composition theorem gives rise to a natural notion of automata for finite words over an infinite alphabet, with good closure and decidability properties, as well as several logical…
We show that the first-order logical theory of the binary overlap-free words (and, more generally, the ${\alpha}$-free words for rational ${\alpha}$, $2 < {\alpha} \leq 7/3$), is decidable. As a consequence, many results previously obtained…
This note contains a report of a proof by computer that the Fibonacci group F(2,9) is automatic. The automatic structure can be used to solve the word problem in the group. Furthermore, it can be seen directly from the word-acceptor that…
We characterize the squares occurring in infinite overlap-free binary words and construct various alpha power-free binary words containing infinitely many overlaps.
Good words are binary words avoiding factors 11 and 1001, and patterns 0000 and 00010100. We show that good words bear the same relationship to the period-doubling sequence that overlap-free words bear to the Thue-Morse sequence. We prove…
A $4^-$-power is a non-empty word of the form $XXXX^-$, where $X^-$ is obtained from $X$ by erasing the last letter. A binary word is called {\em faux-bonacci} if it contains no $4^-$-powers, and no factor 11. We show that faux-bonacci…
We exhibit the construction of a deterministic automaton that, given k > 0, recognizes the (regular) language of k-differentiable words. Our approach follows a scheme of Crochemore et al. based on minimal forbidden words. We extend this…
The theory of finite automata concerns itself with words in a free monoid together with concatenation and without further structure. There are, however, important applications which use alphabets which are structured in some sense. We…
The theory of abstract argumentation frameworks (afs) has, in the main, focused on finite structures, though there are many significant contexts where argumentation can be regarded as a process involving infinite objects. To address this…
An infinite permutation $\alpha$ is a linear ordering of $\mathbb N$. We study properties of infinite permutations analogous to those of infinite words, and show some resemblances and some differences between permutations and words. In this…
Finite automata (FA) are a fundamental computational abstraction that is widely used in practice for various tasks in computer science, linguistics, biology, electrical engineering, and artificial intelligence. Given an input word, an FA…
The notion of an automaton over a changing alphabet $X=(X_i)_{i\geq 1}$ is used to define and study automorphism groups of the tree $X^*$ of finite words over $X$. The concept of bi-reversibility for Mealy-type automata is extended to…
A new technique is presented to prove non-termination of term rewriting. The basic idea is to find a non-empty regular language of terms that is closed under rewriting and does not contain normal forms. It is automated by representing the…
Feferman proved in 1962 that any arithmetical theorem is a consequence of a suitable transfinite iteration of full uniform reflection of $\mathsf{PA}$. This result is commonly known as Feferman's completeness theorem. The purpose of this…
We consider the previously defined notion of finite-state independence and we focus specifically on normal words. We characterize finite-state independence of normal words in three different ways, using three different kinds of asynchronous…
In this paper, we look at an unambiguous version of Simon's forest factorization theorem, a very deep result which has wide connections in algebra, logic and automata. Given a morphism $\varphi$ from $\Sigma^+$ to a finite semigroup $S$, we…
It is undecidable whether the language recognized by a probabilistic finite automaton is empty. Several other undecidability results, in particular regarding problems about matrix products, are based on this important theorem. We present…
A process algebra is proposed, whose semantics maps a term to a nondeterministic finite automaton (NFA, for short). We prove a representability theorem: for each NFA $N$, there exists a process algebraic term $p$ such that its semantics is…
We show that any finite monoid or semigroup presentation satisfying the small overlap condition C(4) has word problem which is a deterministic rational relation. It follows that the set of lexicographically minimal words forms a regular…