Related papers: Disposability in Square-Free Words
A finite or infinite word is called a $G$-word for a labelled graph $G$ on the vertex set $A_n = \{0,1,..., n-1\}$ if $w = i_1i_2...i_k \in A_n^*$, where each factor $i_ji_{j+1}$ is an edge of $E$, i.e, $w$ represents a walk in $G$. We show…
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…
A set X of partial words over a finite alphabet A is called unavoidable if every two-sided infinite word over A has a factor compatible with an element of X. Unlike the case of a set of words without holes, the problem of deciding whether…
A morphism h is unambiguous with respect to a word w if there is no other morphism g that maps w to the same image as h. In the present paper we study the question of whether, for any given word, there exists an unambiguous 1-uniform…
Two words have a reverse if they have the same pair of distinct letters on the same pair of positions, but in reversed order. A set of words no two of which have a reverse is said to be reverse-free. Let F(n,k) be the maximum size of a…
Squares (fragments of the form $xx$, for some string $x$) are arguably the most natural type of repetition in strings. The basic algorithmic question concerning squares is to check if a given string of length $n$ is square-free, that is,…
We introduce new avoidability problems for words by considering equivalence relations, k-abelian equivalences, which lie properly in between equality and commutative equality, i.e. abelian equality. For two k-abelian equivalent words the…
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…
The combinatorics of squares in a word depends on how the equivalence of halves of the square is defined. We consider Abelian squares, parameterized squares, and order-preserving squares. The word $uv$ is an Abelian (parameterized,…
A binary shuffle square is a binary word of even length that can be partitioned into two disjoint, identical subwords. Huang, Nam, Thaper, and the first author conjectured that as $n\rightarrow \infty$, asymptotically half of all binary…
We prove that every concatenation of $10$ or more binary squares contains an overlap. The bound $10$ is best possible. In contrast, over a ternary alphabet, there are infinitely long overlap-free words that consist of a concatenation of…
We prove two results about width of words in $SL_n(\mathbb{Z})$. The first is that, for every $n \geq 3$, there is a constant $C(n)$ such that the width of any word in $SL_n(\mathbb{Z})$ is less than $C(n)$. The second result is that, for…
We solve a problem of Petrova, finalizing the classification of letter patterns avoidable by ternary square-free words; we show that there is a ternary square-free word avoiding letter pattern $xyzxzyx$. In fact, we: (1) characterize all…
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…
An abelian square is the concatenation of two words that are anagrams of one another. A word of length $n$ can contain $\Theta(n^2)$ distinct factors that are abelian squares. We study infinite words such that the number of abelian square…
The lexicographically least square-free infinite word on the alphabet of non-negative integers with a given prefix $p$ is denoted $L(p)$. When $p$ is the empty word, this word was shown by Guay-Paquet and Shallit to be the ruler sequence.…
The avoidability, or unavoidability of patterns in words over finite alphabets has been studied extensively. A word (pattern) over a finite set is said to be unavoidable if, for all but finitely many words, there exists a morphism mapping…
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…
Partial words are sequences over a finite alphabet that may contain wildcard symbols, called holes, which match or are compatible with all letters; partial words without holes are said to be full words (or simply words). Given an infinite…
Let $L_{k,\alpha}^{\mathbb{Z}}$ denote the set of all bi-infinite $\alpha$-power free words over an alphabet with $k$ letters, where $\alpha$ is a positive rational number and $k$ is positive integer. We prove that if $\alpha\geq 5$, $k\geq…