Related papers: Avoiding fractional powers over the natural number…
Words are sequences of letters over a finite alphabet. We study two intimately related topics for this object: quasi-randomness and limit theory. With respect to the first topic we investigate the notion of uniform distribution of letters…
In this paper we undertake the general study of the Abelian complexity of an infinite word on a finite alphabet. We investigate both similarities and differences between the Abelian complexity and the usual subword complexity. While the…
We prove that product-free sets of the free group over a finite alphabet have maximum density $1/2$ with respect to the natural measure that assigns total weight one to each set of irreducible words of a given size. This confirms a…
We describe a solution of the word problem in free fields (coming from non-commutative polynomials over a commutative field) using elementary linear algebra, provided that the elements are given by minimal linear representations. It relies…
Motivation: Alignment-free (AF) distance/similarity functions are a key tool for sequence analysis. Experimental studies on real datasets abound and, to some extent, there are also studies regarding their control of false positive rate…
Any infinite uniformly recurrent word ${\bf u}$ can be written as concatenation of a finite number of return words to a chosen prefix $w$ of ${\bf u}$. Ordering of the return words to $w$ in this concatenation is coded by derivated word…
A cross-bifix-free code is a set of words in which no prefix of any length of any word is the suffix of any word in the set. Cross-bifix-free codes arise in the study of distributed sequences for frame synchronization. We provide a new…
We consider the class ${\cal P}_1$ of all infinite words $x\in A^\omega$ over a finite alphabet $A$ admitting a prefixal factorization, i.e., a factorization $x= U_0 U_1U_2 \cdots $ where each $U_i$ is a non-empty prefix of $x.$ With each…
In this note we provide a negative answer to the question: ``Is it true that for every positive rational number $r$ there exists a finite abelian group $G$ such that $|\mathrm{Aut}(G)|/|G| = r$?". We show that if $r = a/b$ is a rational…
We start by considering binary words containing the minimum possible numbers of squares and antisquares (where an antisquare is a word of the form $x \overline{x}$), and we completely classify which possibilities can occur. We consider…
A position $p$ in a word $w$ is critical if the minimal local period at $p$ is equal to the global period of $w$. According to the Critical Factorisation Theorem all words of length at least two have a critical point. We study the number…
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…
In 1985, Restivo and Salemi presented a list of five problems concerning power free languages. Problem $4$ states: Given $\alpha$-power-free words $u$ and $v$, decide whether there is a transition from $u$ to $v$. Problem $5$ states: Given…
Given a finite family F of linear forms with integer coefficients, and a compact abelian group G, an F-free set in G is a measurable set which does not contain solutions to any equation L(x)=0 for L in F. We denote by d_F(G) the supremum of…
Cross-bifix-free sets are sets of words such that no prefix of any word is a sufix of any other word. In this paper, we introduce a general constructive method for the sets of cross-bifix-free q-ary words of fixed length. It enables us to…
We prove that, for any natural number n $\ge$ 1, we can find a finite alphabet $\Sigma$ and a finitary language L over $\Sigma$ accepted by a one-counter automaton, such that the $\omega$-power L $\infty$ := {w 0 w 1. .. $\in$ $\Sigma$…
Let $H$ be a monoid, $\mathscr F(X)$ be the free monoid on a set $X$, and $\pi_H$ be the unique extension of the identity map on $H$ to a monoid homomorphism $\mathscr F(H) \to H$. Given $A \subseteq H$, an $A$-word $\mathfrak z$ (i.e., an…
In the classical theory of formal languages, finite state automata allow to recognize the words of a rational subset of $\Sigma^*$ where $\Sigma$ is a set of symbols (or the alphabet). Now, given a semiring $(\K,+,.)$, one can construct…
This paper concerns a specific class of strict standard episturmian words whose directive words resemble those of characteristic Sturmian words. In particular, we explicitly determine all integer powers occurring in such infinite words,…
Let $\mathfrak A$ be an alphabet and $W$ be a set of words in the free monoid ${\mathfrak A}^*$. Let $S(W)$ denote the Rees quotient over the ideal of ${\mathfrak A}^*$ consisting of all words that are not subwords of words in $W$. A set of…