Related papers: Subword complexity and power avoidance

In 2008, Kurosaki gave a new construction of a (bi-)infinite squarefree word over three letters. We show that in fact Kurosaki's word avoids 7/4+-powers, which, as shown by Dejean, is optimal over a 3-letter alphabet.

We introduce subsequence covers (s-covers, in short), a new type of covers of a word. A word $C$ is an s-cover of a word $S$ if the occurrences of $C$ in $S$ as subsequences cover all the positions in $S$. The s-covers seem to be…

Let (t_n) be the classical Thue-Morse sequence defined by t_n = s_2(n) (mod 2), where s_2 is the sum of the bits in the binary representation of n. It is well known that for any integer k>=1 the frequency of the letter "1" in the…

We prove several results about the relationship between the word complexity function of a subshift and the set of Turing degrees of points of the subshift, which we call the Turing spectrum. Among other results, we show that a Turing…

A word contains a \emph{half-flip} if it contains non-empty factors $uv$ and $vu$ where $|u|=|v|$. Fici reports a non-constructive proof of the existence of an infinite word over a finite alphabet avoiding half-flips and asks for the size…

This paper concerns the avoidability of abelian and additive powers in infinite rich words. In particular, we construct an infinite additive $5$-power-free rich word over $\{0,1\}$ and an infinite additive $4$-power-free rich word over…

We study infinite words u over an alphabet A satisfying the property P : P(n)+ P(n+1) = 1+ #A for any n in N, where P(n) denotes the number of palindromic factors of length n occurring in the language of u. We study also infinite words…

For a rational number $r$ such that $1<r\leq 2$, an undirected $r$-power is a word of the form $xyx'$, where the word $x$ is nonempty, the word $x'$ is in $\{x,x^R\}$, and we have $|xyx'|/|xy|=r$. The undirected repetition threshold for $k$…

Let $u \shuffle v$ denote the set of all shuffles of the words $u$ and $v$. It is shown that for each integer $n \geq 3$ there exists a square-free ternary word $u$ of length $n$ such that $u\shuffle u$ contains a square-free word. This…

The avoidability of binary patterns by binary cube-free words is investigated and the exact bound between unavoidable and avoidable patterns is found. All avoidable patterns are shown to be D0L-avoidable. For avoidable patterns, the growth…

The celebrated Thue-Morse sequence, or the Prouhet-Thue-Morse sequence (A010060 in the OEIS), has a number of interesting properties and is a rich source to many (counter)examples. We introduce two different square-free sequences on three…

We study the properties of the ternary infinite word p = 012102101021012101021012 ... , that is, the fixed point of the map h:0->01, 1->21, 2->0. We determine its factor complexity, critical exponent, and prove that it is 2-balanced. We…

Using a new approach based on automatic sequences, logic, and a decision procedure, we reprove some old theorems about circularly squarefree words and unbordered conjugates in a new and simpler way. Furthermore, we prove three new results…

A word is \emph{square-free} if it does not contain non-empty factors of the form $XX$. In 1906 Thue proved that there exist arbitrarily long square-free words over $3$-letter alphabet. We consider a new type of square-free words. A…

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…

Let $S$ be one of $\{aba,bcb\}$ and $\{aba, aca\}$, and let $w$ be an infinite square-free word over $\Sigma=\{a,b,c\}$ with no factor in $S$. Suppose that $f:\Sigma\rightarrow T^*$ is a non-erasing morphism. Word $f(w)$ is square-free if…

We identify the structure of the lexicographically least word avoiding 5/4-powers on the alphabet of nonnegative integers. Specifically, we show that this word has the form $p \tau(\varphi(z) \varphi^2(z) \cdots)$ where $p, z$ are finite…

The subword complexity of a word $w$ over a finite alphabet $\mathcal{A}$ is a function that assigns for each positive integer $n$, the number of distinct subwords of length $n$ in $w$. The subword complexity of a word is a good measure of…

Twins in a finite word are formed by a pair of identical subwords placed at disjoint sets of positions. We investigate the maximum length of twins in a random word over a $k$-letter alphabet. The obtained lower bounds for small values of…

We generalize Axel Thue's familiar definition of overlaps in words, and show that there are no infinite words containing split occurrences of these generalized overlaps. Along the way we prove a useful theorem about repeated disjoint…