Related papers: Primitive Sets of Words
A word $w$ over an alphabet $\Sigma$ is a Lyndon word if there exists an order defined on $\Sigma$ for which $w$ is lexicographically smaller than all of its conjugates (other than itself). We introduce and study \emph{universal Lyndon…
We study subsets of groups and monoids defined by language-theoretic means, generalizing the classical approach to the word problem. We expand on results by Herbst from 1991 to a more general setting, and for a class of languages…
We investigate the problem of the maximum number of cubic subwords (of the form $www$) in a given word. We also consider square subwords (of the form $ww$). The problem of the maximum number of squares in a word is not well understood.…
If p is a prime, then the numbers 1, 2, ..., p-1 form a group under multiplication modulo p. A number g that generates this group is called a primitive root of p; i.e., g is such that every number between 1 and p-1 can be written as a power…
A binary matrix has the Consecutive Ones Property (C1P) if its columns can be ordered in such a way that all 1's on each row are consecutive. A Minimal Conflicting Set is a set of rows that does not have the C1P, but every proper subset has…
Elements of the free group define interesting maps, known as word maps, on groups. It was previously observed by Lubotzky that every subset of a finite simple group that is closed under endomorphisms occurs as the image of some word map. We…
In this article we provide a new finite class of elements in any Coxeter system (W,S) called low elements. They are defined from Brink and Howlett's small roots, which are strongly linked to the automatic structure of (W,S). Our first main…
We study maximal subsemigroups of the monoid T(X) of all full transformations on the set X=N of natural numbers containing a given subsemigroup W of T(X) where each element of a given set $U$ is a generator of T(X) modulo W. This note…
A factorization of a permutation into transpositions is called "primitive" if its factors are weakly ordered. We discuss the problem of enumerating primitive factorizations of permutations, and its place in the hierarchy of previously…
Trapezoidal words are words having at most $n+1$ distinct factors of length $n$ for every $n\ge 0$. They therefore encompass finite Sturmian words. We give combinatorial characterizations of trapezoidal words and exhibit a formula for their…
Let v and w be nontrivial words in two free groups. We prove that, for all sufficiently large finite non-abelian simple groups G, there exist subsets C of v(G) and D of w(G) of size such that every element of G can be realized in at least…
This paper considers the word problem for free inverse monoids of finite rank from a language theory perspective. It is shown that no free inverse monoid has context-free word problem; that the word problem of the free inverse monoid of…
The study of verbal subgroups within a group is well-known for being an effective tool to obtain structural information about a group. Therefore, conditions that allow the classification of words in a free group are of paramount importance.…
A word $x$ that is absent from a word $y$ is called minimal if all its proper factors occur in $y$. Given a collection of $k$ words $y_1,y_2,\ldots,y_k$ over an alphabet $\Sigma$, we are asked to compute the set…
In this work, we explore the following question: If two words in a finitely generated free group have identical images as word maps on every finite group, must they be endomorphic to each other? In this regard, we introduce weak profinite…
A finite word $w$ is called \textit{closed} if it has length at most 1 or it contains a proper factor that occurs both as a prefix and as a suffix but does not have internal occurrences in $w$. An infinite word $u$ is called…
A finite word $w$ is called \emph{rich} if it contains $\vert w\vert+1$ distinct palindromic factors including the empty word. For every finite rich word $w$ there are distinct nonempty palindromes $w_1, w_2,\dots,w_p$ such that…
Let $\A$ be a finite non-empty set and $\preceq $ a total order on $\A^\nats$ verifying the following lexicographic like condition: For each $n\in \nats$ and $u, v\in \A^n,$ if $u^\omega \prec v^\omega$ then $ux\prec vy$ for all $x, y \in…
We discuss several two-dimensional generalizations of the familiar Lyndon-Schutzenberger periodicity theorem for words. We consider the notion of primitive array (as one that cannot be expressed as the repetition of smaller arrays). We…
We prove new results concerning the relation between bifix codes, episturmian words and subgroups offree groups. We study bifix codes in factorial sets of words. We generalize most properties of ordinary maximal bifix codes to bifix codes…