English

Avoidability of formulas with two variables

Discrete Mathematics 2016-10-14 v2 Formal Languages and Automata Theory

Abstract

In combinatorics on words, a word ww over an alphabet Σ\Sigma is said to avoid a pattern pp over an alphabet Δ\Delta of variables if there is no factor ff of ww such that f=h(p)f=h(p) where h:ΔΣh:\Delta^*\to\Sigma^* is a non-erasing morphism. A pattern pp is said to be kk-avoidable if there exists an infinite word over a kk-letter alphabet that avoids pp. We consider the patterns such that at most two variables appear at least twice, or equivalently, the formulas with at most two variables. For each such formula, we determine whether it is 22-avoidable, and if it is 22-avoidable, we determine whether it is avoided by exponentially many binary words.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1606.03955,
  title  = {Avoidability of formulas with two variables},
  author = {Pascal Ochem and Matthieu Rosenfeld},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1606.03955},
  year   = {2016}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-22T14:23:59.582Z