Related papers: Palindromic Length and Reduction of Powers

We consider two {seemingly} different definitions of infinite words which contain {the} utmost number of palindromes. We show that these two definitions coincide. {The keynote of the proof is a meticulous inspection of properties of…

Let u be a cyclic word in a free group F_n of finite rank n that has the minimum length over all cyclic words in its automorphic orbit, and let N(u) be the cardinality of the set {v: |v|=|u| and v=\phi(u) for some \phi \in AutF_n}. In this…

We determine the minimum possible critical exponent for all palindromes over finite alphabets.

Given a string $s$ of length $n$ over a general alphabet and an integer $k$, the problem is to decide whether $s$ is a concatenation of $k$ nonempty palindromes. Two previously known solutions for this problem work in time $O(kn)$ and…

We study the palindromic length of factors of infinite words fixed by morphisms of the so-called class $\mathcal{P}$ introduced by Hof, Knill and Simon. We show that it grows at most logarithmically with the length of the factor. For the…

Palindromes are those reduced words of free products of groups that coincide with their reverse words. We prove that a free product of groups $G$ has infinite palindromic width, provided that $G$ is not the free product of two cyclic groups…

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…

A closed word (a.k.a. periodic-like word or complete first return) is a word whose longest border does not have internal occurrences, or, equivalently, whose longest repeated prefix is not right special. We investigate the structure of…

Let $w$ be a finite word of length $n$. In this paper, we study the maximum possible number of distinct rational power factors in a finite word. A rational power is a word of the form $u=p^kp'$, where $p$ is a nonempty finite word, $k$ is…

Motivated by a conjecture of Frid, Puzynina, and Zamboni, we investigate infinite words with the property that for infinitely many n, every length-n factor is a product of two palindromes. We show that every Sturmian word has this property,…

We study the palindromic complexity of infinite words $u_\beta$, the fixed points of the substitution over a binary alphabet, $\phi(0)=0^a1$, $\phi(1)=0^b1$, with $a-1\geq b\geq 1$, which are canonically associated with quadratic non-simple…

A gapped repeat is a factor of the form $uvu$ where $u$ and $v$ are nonempty words. The period of the gapped repeat is defined as $|u|+|v|$. The gapped repeat is maximal if it cannot be extended to the left or to the right by at least one…

Let u be a cyclic word in a free group F_n of finite rank n that has the minimum length over all cyclic words in its automorphic orbit, and let N(u) be the cardinality of the set {v: |v|=|u| and v= \phi(u) for some \phi \in \text {Aut}F_n}.…

Let $\omega_0, \omega_1,\ldots, \omega_n$ be a full set of outcomes (letters, symbols) and let positive $p_i$, $i=0,\ldots,n$, be their probabilities ($\sum_{i=0}^n p_i=1$). Let us treat $\omega_0$ as a stop symbol; it can occur in…

We prove lower bounds on the length of regular expressions for finite languages by methods from arithmetic circuit complexity. First, we show a reduction: the length of a regular expression for a language $L\subseteq \{0,1\}^n$ is bounded…

Identifying palindromes in sequences has been an interesting line of research in combinatorics on words and also in computational biology, after the discovery of the relation of palindromes in the DNA sequence with the HIV virus. Efficient…

Words whose three successive factors of the same length are all different i.e. 3-anti-power words are a natural extension of square-free words (two successive factors of the same length are different). We give a way to verify whether a…

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…

A palindrome is a word that reads the same left-to-right as right-to-left. We show that every simple group has a finite generating set $X$, such that every element of it can be written as a palindrome in the letters of $X$. Moreover, every…

Fici, Restivo, Silva, and Zamboni define a $\textit{$k$-anti-power}$ to be a concatenation of $k$ consecutive words that are pairwise distinct and have the same length. They ask for the maximum $k$ such that every aperiodic recurrent word…