Related papers: On the almost-palindromic width of free groups

The prefix palindromic length $p_{\mathbf{u}}(n)$ of an infinite word $\mathbf{u}$ is the minimal number of concatenated palindromes needed to express the prefix of length $n$ of $\mathbf{u}$. This function is surprisingly difficult to…

We study the set of finite words with zero palindromic defect, i.e., words rich in palindromes. This set is factorial, but not recurrent. We focus on description of pairs of rich words which cannot occur simultaneously as factors of a…

For fixed integer $r\ge 2$, we call a pair $(m,f)$ of integers, $m\geq 1$, $0\leq f \leq \binom{m}{r}$, $absolutely$ $avoidable$ if there is $n_0$, such that for any pair of integers $(n,e)$ with $n>n_0$ and $0\leq e\leq \binom{n}{r}$ there…

In this article, we first describe all nonempty sets of integers S with the property that for all n and m in S, not necessarily distinct, the set {n-m,n+m} intersected with S consists of a single element. These are the sets with at most two…

We study the number of $0,1$-words where the fraction of 0 is "almost" fixed for any initial subword. It turns out that this study use and reveal the structure of the Galois group (the monodromy group) of the polynomials $(x+1)^n-\lambda…

We settle an open problem regarding palindromes; that is, positive integers which are the same when written forwards and backwards. In particular, we prove that for any fixed base $b\geq 2$, there exist infinitely many square-free…

A subset $A$ of a given finite abelian group $G$ is called $(k,l)$-sum-free if the sum of $k$ (not necessarily distinct) elements of $A$ does not equal the sum of $l$ (not necessarily distinct) elements of $A$. We are interested in finding…

We exhibit a recurrence on the number of discrete line segments joining two integer points in the plane using an encoding of such segments as balanced words of given length and height over the two-letter alphabet $\{0,1\}$. We give…

We show that the conjugacy problem is solvable in [finitely generated free]-by-cyclic groups, by using a result of O. Maslakova that one can algorithmically find generating sets for the fixed subgroups of free group automorphisms, and one…

Given a finite word u, we define its palindromic length |u|_{pal} to be the least number n such that u=v_1v_2... v_n with each v_i a palindrome. We address the following open question: Does there exist an infinite non ultimately periodic…

Recently, a new characterization of Lyndon words that are also perfectly clustering was proposed by Lapointe and Reutenauer (2024). A word over a ternary alphabet {a,b,c} is called perfectly clustering Lyndon if and only if it is the…

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 prove that any product of two non-abelian free groups, $\Gamma=\mathbb F_m\times\mathbb F_k$, for $m,k\geq 2$, is not Hilbert-Schmidt stable. This means that there exist asymptotic representations $\pi_n:\Gamma\rightarrow…

Every finite simple group can be generated by two elements, and in 2000, Guralnick and Kantor resolved a 1962 question of Steinberg by proving that in a finite simple group every nontrivial element belongs to a generating pair. Groups with…

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 consider the following feasibility problem: given an integer $n \geq 1$ and an integer $m$ such that $0 \leq m \leq \binom{n}{2}$, does there exist a line graph $L = L(G)$ with exactly $n$ vertices and $m$ edges ? We say that a pair…

M.-P. Sch\"utzenberger asked to determine the support of the free Lie algebra ${\mathcal L}_{{\mathbb Z}_{m}}(A)$ on a finite alphabet $A$ over the ring ${\mathbb Z}_{m}$ of integers $\bmod m$ and all the corresponding pairs of twin and…

We consider non-elementary representations of two generator free groups in $PSL(2,\mathbb{C})$, not necessarily discrete or free, $G = < A, B >$. A word in $A$ and $B$, $W(A,B)$, is a palindrome if it reads the same forwards and backwards.…

Let G be a group and S a subset of G that generates G. For each x in G define the length l_S(x) of x relative to S to be the minimal k such that x is a product of k elements of S. The supremum of the values l_S(x), x \in G, is called the…

Let N be a large enough natural number, A and B be subsets of {N+1, ... , 2N}. In this paper, we prove that there exists integers a, b with a belongs to A, b belongs to B such that ab=P_k^2 + O(P_k^{1-c}), where 0<c<1/2 and P_k denotes an…