Related papers: Recurrent Partial Words
In combinatorics on words, the well-studied factor complexity function $\rho_{\infw{x}}$ of a sequence $\infw{x}$ over a finite alphabet counts, for every nonnegative integer $n$, the number of distinct length-$n$ factors of $\infw{x}$. In…
We find generating functions the number of strings (words) containing a specified number of occurrences of certain types of order-isomorphic classes of substrings called subword patterns. In particular, we find generating functions for the…
We study the $k$-Bonacci word over the infinite alphabet $\mathbb{N}$. Since the alphabet is infinite, the usual factor complexity is infinite and does not provide any information. We therefore investigate factor occurrence statistics in…
A group-word w is called concise if whenever the set of w-values in a group G is finite it always follows that the verbal subgroup w(G) is finite. More generally, a word w is said to be concise in a class of groups X if whenever the set of…
A pair of letters $x$ and $y$ are said to alternate in a word $w$ if, after removing all letters except for the copies of $x$ and $y$ from $w$, the resulting word is of the form $xyxy\ldots$ (of even or odd length) or $yxyx\ldots$ (of even…
A pattern $\alpha$ is a string of variables and terminal letters. We say that $\alpha$ matches a word $w$, consisting only of terminal letters, if $w$ can be obtained by replacing the variables of $\alpha$ by terminal words. The matching…
These lecture notes provide an introduction to combinatorics on words and its interactions with dynamics, algebra, and arithmetic. The central theme is the notion of low factor complexity for infinite words. We investigate the following…
In combinatorics on words, a word $w$ over an alphabet $\Sigma$ is said to avoid a pattern $p$ over an alphabet $\Delta$ if there is no factor $f$ of $w$ such that $f=h(p)$ where $h:\Delta^*\to\Sigma^*$ is a non-erasing morphism. A pattern…
Unrefinable partitions are a subset of partitions into distinct parts which satisfy an additional unrefinability property. More precisely, being an unrefinable partition means that none of the parts can be written as the sum of smaller…
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…
We study the following rearrangement problem: Given $n$ words, rearrange and concatenate them so that the obtained string is lexicographically smallest (or largest, respectively). We show that this problem reduces to sorting the given words…
For a complexity function $C$, the lower and upper $C$-complexity rates of an infinite word $\mathbf{x}$ are \[ \underline{C}(\mathbf x)=\liminf_{n\to\infty} \frac{C(\mathbf{x}\upharpoonright n)}n,\quad \overline{C}(\mathbf…
We characterize the squares occurring in infinite overlap-free binary words and construct various alpha power-free binary words containing infinitely many overlaps.
Enumerating the number of times one word occurs in another is a much-studied combinatorial subject. By utilizing a method that we call ``lexicographic extreme referencing'', we provide a formula for computing occurrences of one binary word…
We construct an infinite word $w$ over the $5$-letter alphabet such that for every factor $f$ of $w$ of length at least two, there exists a cyclic permutation of $f$ that is not a factor of $w$. In other words, $w$ does not contain a…
Words in some natural languages can have a composite structure. Elements of this structure include the root (that could also be composite), prefixes and suffixes with which various nuances and relations to other words can be expressed.…
An abelian square is the concatenation of two words that are anagrams of one another. A word of length $n$ can contain at most $\Theta(n^2)$ distinct factors, and there exist words of length $n$ containing $\Theta(n^2)$ distinct…
We prove that, for any pure morphic word $w$, if the frequencies of all letters in $w$ exist, then the frequencies of all factors in $w$ exist as well. This result answers a question of Saari in his doctoral thesis.
The set of finite words over a well-quasi-ordered set is itself well-quasi-ordered. This seminal result by Higman is a cornerstone of the theory of well-quasi-orderings and has found numerous applications in computer science. However, this…
An overlap-free (or $\beta$-free) word $w$ over a fixed alphabet $\Sigma$ is extremal if every word obtained from $w$ by inserting a single letter from $\Sigma$ at any position contains an overlap (or a factor of exponent at least $\beta$,…