English

Infinite square-free self-shuffling words

Discrete Mathematics 2014-11-11 v2 Formal Languages and Automata Theory Combinatorics

Abstract

In this paper we answer two recent questions from Charlier et al. and Harju about self-shuffling words. An infinite word ww is called self-shuffling, if w=i=0UiVi=i=0Ui=i=0Viw=\prod_{i=0}^\infty U_iV_i=\prod_{i=0}^\infty U_i=\prod_{i=0}^\infty V_i for some finite words UiU_i, ViV_i. Harju recently asked whether square-free self-shuffling words exist. We answer this question affirmatively. Besides that, we build an infinite word such that no word in its shift orbit closure is self-shuffling, answering positively a question from Charlier et al.

Cite

@article{arxiv.1401.6536,
  title  = {Infinite square-free self-shuffling words},
  author = {Mike Müller and Svetlana Puzynina and Michaël Rao},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1401.6536},
  year   = {2014}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-22T02:54:40.750Z