Related papers: Extremal Pattern-Avoiding Words

Carpi constructed an infinite word over a 4-letter alphabet that avoids squares in all subsequences indexed by arithmetic progressions of odd difference. We show a connection between Carpi's construction and the paperfolding words. We…

We describe a new non-constructive technique to show that squares are avoidable by an infinite word even if we force some letters from the alphabet to appear at certain occurrences. We show that as long as forced positions are at distance…

We study words that barely avoid repetitions, for several senses of "barely". A squarefree (respectively, overlap-free, cubefree) word is irreducible if removing any one of its interior letters creates a square (respectively, overlap,…

We study a new notion of cyclic avoidance of abelian powers. A finite word $w$ avoids abelian $N$-powers cyclically if for each abelian $N$-power of period $m$ occurring in the infinite word $w^\omega$, we have $m \geq |w|$. Let…

We investigate the least number of palindromic factors in an infinite word. We first consider general alphabets, and give answers to this problem for periodic and non-periodic words, closed or not under reversal of factors. We then…

We show that the number of length-n words over a k-letter alphabet having no even palindromic prefix is the same as the number of length-n unbordered words, by constructing an explicit bijection between the two sets. A slightly different…

We consider the enumeration of ordered set partitions avoiding a permutation pattern, as introduced by Godbole, Goyt, Herdan and Pudwell. Let $\op_{n,k}(p)$ be the number of ordered set partitions of $\{1,2,\ldots,n\}$ into $k$ blocks that…

An extremal graph for a given graph $H$ is a graph with maximum number of edges on fixed number of vertices without containing a copy of $H$. The $k$-th power of a path is a graph obtained from a path and joining all pair of vertices of the…

The joint spectral radius of a bounded set of $d \times d$ real matrices is defined to be the maximum possible exponential growth rate of products of matrices drawn from that set. For a fixed set of matrices, a sequence of matrices drawn…

For some extremal (optimal) odd unimodular lattice $L$ in dimensions $12,16,20,28,32,36,40$ and $44$, we determine all integers $k$ such that $L$ contains a $k$-frame. This result yields the existence of an extremal Type I…

We prove that a random word of length $n$ over a $k$-ary fixed alphabet contains, on expectation, $\Theta(\sqrt{n})$ distinct palindromic factors. We study this number of factors, $E(n,k)$, in detail, showing that the limit…

We find generating functions for the number of words avoiding certain patterns or sets of patterns on at most 2 distinct letters and determine which of them are equally avoided. We also find the exact number of words avoiding certain…

Given a language L and a nondeterministic finite automaton M, we consider whether we can determine efficiently (in the size of M) if M accepts at least one word in L, or infinitely many words. Given that M accepts at least one word in L, we…

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…

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…

A permutation $\sigma \in S_n$ is a $k$-superpattern (or $k$-universal) if it contains each $\tau \in S_k$ as a pattern. This notion of "superpatterns" can be generalized to words on smaller alphabets, and several questions about…

We enumerate all ternary length-l square-free words, which are words avoiding squares of words up to length l, for l<=24. We analyse the singular behaviour of the corresponding generating functions. This leads to new upper entropy bounds…

Pattern avoidance is a central topic in graph theory and combinatorics. Pattern avoidance in matrices has applications in computer science and engineering, such as robot motion planning and VLSI circuit design. A $d$-dimensional zero-one…

We consider avoiding mesosomes -- that is, words of the form $xx'$ with $x'$ a conjugate of $x$ that is different from $x$ -- over a binary alphabet. We give a structure theorem for mesosome-avoiding words, count how many there are,…

We consider three aspects of avoiding large squares in infinite binary words. First, we construct an infinite binary word avoiding both cubes xxx and squares yy with |y| >= 4; our construction is somewhat simpler than the original…