Related papers: The undirected repetition threshold and undirected…

Sequence pattern avoidance is a central topic in combinatorics. A sequence $s$ contains a sequence $u$ if some subsequence of $s$ can be changed into $u$ by a one-to-one renaming of its letters. If $s$ does not contain $u$, then $s$ avoids…

Recently, B\'ona and Smith defined strong pattern avoidance, saying that a permutation $\pi$ strongly avoids a pattern $\tau$ if $\pi$ and $\pi^2$ both avoid $\tau$. They conjectured that for every positive integer $k$, there is a…

We consider avoiding squares and overlaps over the natural numbers, using a greedy algorithm that chooses the least possible integer at each step; the word generated is lexicographically least among all such infinite words. In the case of…

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…

In [BabStein] Babson and Steingr\'{\i}msson introduced generalized permutation patterns that allow the requirement that two adjacent letters in a pattern must be adjacent in the permutation. In [Kit1] Kitaev considered simultaneous…

A word $w=w_1w_2\cdots w_n$ is alternating if either $w_1<w_2>w_3<w_4>\cdots$ (when the word is up-down) or $w_1>w_2<w_3>w_4<\cdots$ (when the word is down-up). In this paper, we initiate the study of (pattern-avoiding) alternating words.…

We characterize the formulas that are avoided by every $\alpha$-free word for some $\alpha>1$. We study the avoidability index of formulas whose fragments are of the form $XYX$. The largest avoidability index of an avoidable palindrome…

We study the maximum multiplicity $\mathcal{M}(k,n)$ of a simple transposition $s_k=(k \: k+1)$ in a reduced word for the longest permutation $w_0=n \: n-1 \: \cdots \: 2 \: 1$, a problem closely related to much previous work on sorting…

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…

Given a nonempty finite word $v$, let $PL(v)$ be the palindromic length of $v$; it means the minimal number of palindromes whose concatenation is equal to $v$. Let $v^R$ denote the reversal of $v$. Given a finite or infinite word $y$, let…

There are several versions of permutation pattern avoidance that have arisen in the literature, and some known examples of two different types of pattern avoidance coinciding. In this paper, we examine barred patterns and vincular patterns.…

The critical exponent of an infinite word $\bf x$ is the supremum, over all finite nonempty factors $f$, of the exponent of $f$. In this note we show that for all integers $k\geq 2,$ there is a binary infinite $k$-automatic sequence with…

The allowed patterns of a map on a one-dimensional interval are those permutations that are realized by the relative order of the elements in its orbits. The set of allowed patterns is completely determined by the minimal patterns that are…

The Collatz conjecture can be stated in terms of the reduced Collatz function R(x) = (3x+1)/2^m (where 2^m is the larger power of 2 that divides 3x+1). The conjecture is: Starting from any odd positive integer and repeating R(x) we…

Numbers are often used to define more complicated numbers. For example, two integers are used to define a rational number and two reals are used to define a complex number. It might be expected that an irrational power of an irrational…

Two $k$-ary Fibonacci recurrences are $a_k(n) = a_k(n-1) + k \cdot a_k(n-2)$ and $b_k(n) = k \cdot b_k(n-1) + b_k(n-2)$. We provide a simple proof that $a_k(n)$ is the number of $k$-regular words over $[n] = \{1,2,\ldots,n\}$ that avoid…

Circular permutations on {1,2,...,n} that avoid a given pattern correspond to ordinary (linear) permutations that end with n and avoid all cyclic rotations of the pattern. Three letter patterns are all but unavoidable in circular…

Brandenburg and (implicitly) Dejean introduced the concept of repetition threshold: the smallest real number alpha such that there exists an infinite word over a k-letter alphabet that avoids beta-powers for all beta>alpha. We generalize…

A \emph{tangram} is a word in which every letter occurs an even number of times. Such word can be cut into parts that can be arranged into two identical words. The minimum number of cuts needed is called the \emph{cut number} of a tangram.…

Scattered factor (circular) universality was firstly introduced by Barker et al. in 2020. A word $w$ is called $k$-universal for some natural number $k$, if every word of length $k$ of $w$'s alphabet occurs as a scattered factor in $w$; it…