Related papers: Critical exponent of ternary words with few distin…
We study infinite binary words that contain few distinct palindromes. In particular, we classify such words according to their critical exponents. This extends results by Fici and Zamboni [TCS 2013]. Interestingly, the words with 18 and 20…
We determine the minimum possible critical exponent for all palindromes over finite alphabets.
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…
Over an alphabet of size 3 we construct an infinite balanced word with critical exponent 2+sqrt(2)/2. Over an alphabet of size 4 we construct an infinite balanced word with critical exponent (5+sqrt(5))/4. Over larger alphabets, we give…
We show that there exists an uniformly recurrent infinite word whose set of factors is closed under reversal and which has only finitely many palindromic factors.
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…
We characterize binary words that have exactly two unbordered conjugates and show that they can be expressed as a product of two palindromes.
We study the properties of the ternary infinite word p = 012102101021012101021012 ... , that is, the fixed point of the map h:0->01, 1->21, 2->0. We determine its factor complexity, critical exponent, and prove that it is 2-balanced. We…
In 2013, Fici and Zamboni proved a number of theorems about finite and infinite words having only a small number of factors that are palindromes. In this paper we rederive some of their results, and obtain some new ones, by a different…
For each $\alpha > 2$ there is a binary word with critical exponent $\alpha$.
In a recent paper of Rampersad et al., the authors conjectured that the smallest possible critical exponent of an infinite balanced word over a 5-letter alphabet is $3/2$. We prove this result, using a formulation of first-order logic, the…
The palindromic length of the finite word $v$ is equal to the minimal number of palindromes whose concatenation is equal to $v$. It was conjectured in 2013 that for every infinite aperiodic word $x$, the palindromic length of its factors is…
Rich words are characterized by containing the maximum possible number of distinct palindromes. Several characteristic properties of rich words have been studied; yet the analysis of repetitions in rich words still involves some interesting…
We re-examine previous constructions of infinite binary words containing few distinct squares with the goal of finding the "simplest", in a certain sense. We exhibit several new constructions. Rather than using tedious case-based arguments…
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…
We study infinite words u over an alphabet A satisfying the property P : P(n)+ P(n+1) = 1+ #A for any n in N, where P(n) denotes the number of palindromic factors of length n occurring in the language of u. We study also infinite words…
Two results on palindromicity of bi-infinite words in a finite alphabet are presented. The first is a simple, but efficient criterion to exclude palindromicity of minimal sequences and applies, in particular, to the Rudin-Shapiro sequence.…
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 how much injective morphisms can increase the repetitiveness of a given word. This question has a few possible variations depending on the meaning of ``repetitiveness''. We concentrate on fractional exponents of finite words and…
We revisit the question of classification of balanced circular words and focus on the case of a ternary alphabet. We propose a $3$-dimensional generalisation of the discrete approximation representation of Christoffel words. By considering…