The factor complexity of the infinite word $\ubeta$ canonically associated to a non-simple Parry number $β$ is studied. Our approach is based on the notion of special factors introduced by Berstel and Cassaigne. At first, we give a handy method for determining infinite left special branches; this method is applicable to a broad class of infinite words which are fixed points of a primitive substitution. In the second part of the article, we focus on infinite words $\ubeta$ only. To complete the description of its special factors, we define and study $(a,b)$-maximal left special factors. This enables us to characterize non-simple Parry numbers $β$ for which the word $\ubeta$ has affine complexity.
A simple Parry number is a real number β>1 such that the Rényi expansion of 1 is finite, of the form d_β(1)=t_1...t_m. We study the palindromic structure of infinite aperiodic words u_βthat are the fixed point of a substitution associated with a simple Parry number β. It is shown that the word u_βcontains infinitely many palindromes if and only if t_1=t_2= ... =t_{m-1} \geq t_m. Numbers βsatisfying this condition are the so-called confluent Pisot numbers. If t_m=1 then u_βis an Arnoux-Rauzy word. We show that if βis a confluent Pisot number then P(n+1)+ P(n) = C(n+1) - C(n)+ 2, where P(n) is t…
We study the palindromic complexity of infinite words $u_β$, the fixed points of the substitution over a binary alphabet, $ϕ(0)=0^a1$, $ϕ(1)=0^b1$, with $a-1\geq b\geq 1$, which are canonically associated with quadratic non-simple Parry numbers $β$.
In this paper, we study the critical exponent of infinite words $\ubeta$ coding $β$-integers for $β$ being a~non-simple Parry number. In other words, we investigate the maximal consecutive repetitions of factors that occur in the infinite word in question. We calculate also the ultimate critical exponent that expresses how long repetitions occur in the infinite word $\ubeta$ when the factors of length growing ad infinitum are considered. The basic ingredients of our method are the description of all bispecial factors of $\ubeta$ and the notion of return words. This method can be applied to any…
Abelian complexity of a word $\mathbf{u}$ is a function that counts the number of pairwise non-abelian-equivalent factors of $\mathbf{u}$ of length $n$. We prove that for any $c$-balanced Parry word $\mathbf{u}$, the values of the abelian complexity function can be computed by a finite-state automaton. The proof is based on the notion of relative Parikh vectors. The approach works for any function $F(n)$ that can be expressed in terms of the set of relative Parikh vectors corresponding to the length $n$. For example, we show that the balance function of a $c$-balanced Parry word is computable …
We pursue the investigation of generalizations of the Pascal triangle based on binomial coefficients of finite words. These coefficients count the number of times a finite word appears as a subsequence of another finite word. The finite words occurring in this paper belong to the language of a Parry numeration system satisfying the Bertrand property, i.e., we can add or remove trailing zeroes to valid representations. It is a folklore fact that the Sierpiński gasket is the limit set, for the Hausdorff distance, of a convergent sequence of normalized compact blocks extracted from the classical …
In this paper we study the expansions of real numbers in positive and negative real base as introduced by Rényi, and Ito & Sadahiro, respectively. In particular, we compare the sets $\mathbb{Z}_β^+$ and $\mathbb{Z}_{-β}$ of nonnegative $β$-integers and $(-β)$-integers. We describe all bases $(\pmβ)$ for which $\mathbb{Z}_β^+$ and $\mathbb{Z}_{-β}$ can be coded by infinite words which are fixed points of conjugated morphisms, and consequently have the same language. Moreover, we prove that this happens precisely for $β$ with another interesting property, namely that any integer linear combinati…
We propose a technique for exploring the abelian complexity of recurrent infinite words, focusing particularly on infinite words associated with Parry numbers. Using that technique, we give the affirmative answer to the open question posed by Richomme, Saari and Zamboni, whether the abelian complexity of the Tribonacci word attains each value in $\{4,5,6\}$ infinitely many times.
Classical crystals are solid materials containing arbitrarily long periodic repetitions of a single motif. In this paper, we study the maximal possible repetition of the same motif occurring in beta-integers -- one dimensional models of quasicrystals. We are interested in beta-integers realizing only a finite number of distinct distances between neighboring elements. In such a case, the problem may be reformulated in terms of combinatorics on words as a study of the index of infinite words coding beta-integers. We will solve a particular case for beta being a quadratic non-simple Parry number.
Let $β=\frac{1+\sqrt{5}}{2}$, $(a_n)_{n \in \mathbb{N}^+}$ be a non-uniform morphic sequence involving the infinite Fibonacci word and $(δ(n))_{n \in \mathbb{N}^+}$ be a positive sequence such that for all positive integers $n$, $δ(n)=\frac{1}{\sqrt{5}}\sum_{j \geq 0}ε_jβ^{j+2}$ if the unique Zeckendorf expansion of $n$ is $n=\sum_{j \geq 0}ε_jF_{j+2}$ with Fibonacci numbers $F_0,F_1,F_2...$. We define and study some Dirichlet series in the form of $\sum_{n\geq 1}\frac{a_n}{(δ(n))^s}$ and relations between them. Moreover, we compute the values of some infinite series involving the infinite Fib…
A subshift of finite type over finitely many symbols can be described as a collection of all infinite walks on a digraph with at most a single edge from a vertex to another. The associated finite set $\F$ of forbidden words is a constraint which determines the language of the shift entirely. In this paper, in order to describe infinite walks on a multigraph, we introduce the notion of multiplicity of a word (finite walk) and define repeated words as those having multiplicity at least $2$. In general, for given collections $\F$ of forbidden words and $\R$ of repeated words with pre-assigned mul…
Lambda words are sequences obtained by encoding the differences between ordered elements of the form i+jθ, where i and j are non-negative integers and 1 < θ<2. Lambda words are right-infinite words defined over an infinite alphabet that have connections with Sturmian words, Christoffel words, and interspersion arrays. We show that Lambda words are infinite rich words. Furthermore, any Lambda word may be mapped onto a right-infinite word over a three-letter alphabet. Although the mapping preserves palindromes and non-palindromes of the Lambda word, the resulting Gamma word is not rich.
We characterize the squares occurring in infinite overlap-free binary words and construct various alpha power-free binary words containing infinitely many overlaps.
In a recent paper, Brlek, Jamet and Paquin showed that some extremal infinite smooth words are also infinite Lyndon words. This result raises a natural question: are they the only ones? If no, what do the infinite smooth words that are also Lyndon words look like? In this paper, we give the answer, proving that the only infinite smooth Lyndon words are $m_{\{a<b\}}$, with $a,b$ even, $m_{\{1<b\}}$ and $Δ^{-1}_1(m_{\{1<b\}})$, with $b$ odd, where $m_\A$ is the minimal infinite smooth word with respect to the lexicographic order over a numerical alphabet $\A$ and $Δ$ is the run-length encoding f…
In a recent paper, Harju posed three open problems concerning square-free arithmetic progressions in infinite words. In this note we solve two of them.
The study of the structure of infinite words having bounded abelian complexity was initiated by G. Richomme, K. Saari, and L. Q. Zamboni. In this note we define bounded additive complexity for infinite words over a finite subset of Z^m. We provide an alternative proof of one of the results of Richomme, Saari, and Zamboni.
In this paper, we consider infinite words that arise as fixed points of primitive substitutions on a finite alphabet and finite colorings of their factors. Any such infinite word exhibits a "hierarchal structure" that will allow us to define, under the additional condition of strong recognizability, certain remarkable finite colorings of its factors. In particular, we generalize two combinatorial results by Justin and Pirillo concerning arbitrarily large monochromatic $k$-powers occurring in infinite words, in view of a recent paper by de Luca, Pribavkina and Zamboni, we will give new examples…
Given two finite words $u$ and $v$ of equal length, define the \emph{overlap gap between $u$ and $v$}, denoted $og(u,v)$, as the least integer $m$ for which there exist words $x$ and $x'$ of length $m$ such that $xu=vx'$ or $ux=x'v$. Informally, the overlap gap measures the outside parts of the greatest overlap of the given words. For a left-infinite word $λ$ and a right-infinite word $ρ$, let $og_{λ,ρ}$ be the function defined, for each non-negative integer $n$, by $og_{λ,ρ}(n)=og(λ_n,ρ_n)$, where $λ_n$ and $ρ_n$ are, respectively, the suffix of $λ$ and the prefix of $ρ$ of length $n$. Also, …
Consider a graph with vertex set S. A word in the alphabet S has the intervening neighbours property if any two occurrences of the same letter are separated by all its graph neighbours. For a Coxeter graph, words represent group elements. Speyer recently proved that words with the intervening neighbours property are irreducible if the group is infinite and irreducible. We present a new and shorter proof using the root automaton for recognition of irreducible words.
A complete partition theory is presented for omega-located words (and omega-words), namely for located words over an infinite alphabet dominated by a fixed increasing sequence. This theory strengthens in an essential way the classical Carlson, Furstenberg-Katznelson, and Bergelson-Blass-Hindman partition theory for words over a finite alphabet. Consequences of this theory are strong simultaneous extensions of the classical Hindman, Milliken-Taylor partition theorem, and of a van der Waerden theorem for general semigroups, extending results of Hindman-Strauss and Beiglbock.
Let $A_q$ be a $q$-letter alphabet and $w$ be a right infinite word on this alphabet. A subword of $w$ is a block of consecutive letters of $w$. The subword complexity function of $w$ assigns to each positive integer $n$ the number $f_w(n)$ of distinct subwords of length $n$ of $w$. The gap function of an infinite word over the binary alphabet $\{0,1 \}$ gives the distances between consecutive 1's in this word. In this paper we study infinite binary words whose gap function is injective or "almost injective". A method for computing the subword complexity of such words is given. A necessary and…
In this article, we count the number of return words in some infinite words with complexity 2n+1. We also consider some infinite words given by codings of rotation and interval exchange transformations on k intervals. We prove that the number of return words over a given word w for these infinite words is exactly k.
We consider questions related to the structure of infinite words (over an integer alphabet) with bounded additive complexity, i.e., words with the property that the number of distinct sums exhibited by factors of the same length is bounded by a constant that depends only on the word. We describe how bounded additive complexity impacts the slope of the word and how a non-erasing morphism may affect the boundedness of a given word's additive complexity. We prove the existence of recurrent words with constant additive complexity equal to any given odd positive integer. In the last section, we dis…
We study the following problem, first introduced by Dekking. Consider an infinite word x over an alphabet {0,1,...,k-1} and a semigroup homomorphism S:{0,1,...,k-1}* -> N. Let L_x denote the set of factors of x. What conditions on S and the abelian complexity of x guarantee that S(L_x) contains all but finitely many elements of N? We examine this question for some specific infinite words x having different abelian complexity functions.
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 satisfying a stronger property PE: every palindrome of u has exactly one palindromic extension in u. For binary words, the properties P and PE coincide and these properties characterize Sturmian words, i.e., words with the complexity C(n)=n+1 for any n in N. In this paper, we focus on ternary infinite words with the language closed under reversal. For such words…
We show that every infinite word $ω$ on a finite subset of $\mathbb{Z}$ must contain arbitrarily large factors $B_1B_2$ which are "close" to being \textit{additive squares}. We also show that for all $k>1, \ ω$ must contain a factor $U_1U_2 ... U_k$ where $U_1,U_2,..., U_k$ all have the same \textit{average.}
In this paper, we characterize by lexicographic order all finite Sturmian and episturmian words, i.e., all (finite) factors of such infinite words. Consequently, we obtain a characterization of infinite episturmian words in a "wide sense" (episturmian and episkew infinite words). That is, we characterize the set of all infinite words whose factors are (finite) episturmian. Similarly, we characterize by lexicographic order all balanced infinite words over a 2-letter alphabet; in other words, all Sturmian and skew infinite words, the factors of which are (finite) Sturmian.
A generalized lexicographic order on words is a lexicographic order where the total order of the alphabet depends on the position of the comparison. A generalized Lyndon word is a finite word which is strictly smallest among its class of rotations with respect to a generalized lexicographic order. This notion can be extended to infinite words: an infinite generalized Lyndon word is an infinite word which is strictly smallest among its class of suffixes. We prove a conjecture of Dolce, Restivo, and Reutenauer: every infinite word has a unique nonincreasing factorization into finite and infinite…
We study the relation between the palindromic and factor complexity of infinite words. We show that for uniformly recurrent words one has P(n)+P(n+1) \leq ΔC(n) + 2, for all n \in N. For a large class of words it is a better estimate of the palindromic complexity in terms of the factor complexity then the one presented by Allouche et al. We provide several examples of infinite words for which our estimate reaches its upper bound. In particular, we derive an explicit prescription for the palindromic complexity of infinite words coding r-interval exchange transformations. If the permutation πcon…
In this paper we introduce a new notion of a sequence of symmetry groups of an infinite word. Given a subgroup $G_n$ of the symmetric group $S_n$, it acts on the set of finite words of length $n$ by permutation. We associate to an infinite word $w$ a sequence $(G_n(w))_{n\geq 1}$ of its symmetry groups: For each $n$, a symmetry group of $w$ is a subgroup $G_n(w)$ of the symmetric group $S_n$ such that $g(v)$ is a factor of $w$ for each permutation $g \in G_n(w)$ and each factor $v$ of length $n$ of $w$. We study general properties of the symmetry groups of infinite words and characterize the s…
In this paper we study the asymptotic behaviour of two relatively new complexity functions defined on infinite words and their relationship to periodicity. Given a factor $u$ of an infinite word $x$, we say $u$ is closed if it is a letter or if it is a complete first return to some factor $v$ of $x$; otherwise $u$ is said to be open. We show that for an aperiodic word $x$ over a finite alphabet, the complexity functions that count the number of closed and the number of open factors of $x$ of each given length are both unbounded. More precisely, we show that if $x$ is aperiodic then the limit i…
We define the arithmetic self-similarity (AS) of a one-sided infinite sequence sigma to be the set of arithmetic progressions through sigma which are a vertical shift of sigma. We study the AS of several famlies of sequences, viz. completely additive sequences, Toeplitz words and Keane's generalized Morse sequences. We give a complete characterization of the AS of completely additive sequences, and classify the set of single-gap Toeplitz patterns that yield completely additive Toeplitz words. We show that every arithmetic subsequence of a Toeplitz word generated by a one-gap pattern is again a…
The $\ell$-Rauzy graph of order $k$ for any infinite word is a directed graph in which an arc $(v_1,v_2)$ is formed if the concatenation of the word $v_1$ and the suffix of $v_2$ of length $k-\ell$ is a subword of the infinite word. In this paper, we consider one of the important aperiodic recurrent words, the infinite Fibonacci word for discussion. We prove a few basic properties of the $\ell$-Rauzy graph of the infinite Fibonacci word. We also prove that the $\ell$-Rauzy graphs for the infinite Fibonacci word are strongly connected.
We answer a question of Harju: An infinite square-free ternary word with an $n$-stem factorization exists for any $n\ge 13$. We show that there are uniform ternary morphisms of length $k$ for every $k\ge 23$. This resolves almost completely a problem of the author and Rampersad.
We focus on $Θ$-rich and almost $Θ$-rich words over a finite alphabet $\mathcal{A}$, where $Θ$ is an involutive antimorphism over $\mathcal{A}^*$. We show that any recurrent almost $Θ$-rich word $\uu$ is an image of a recurrent $Θ'$-rich word under a suitable morphism, where $Θ'$ is again an involutive antimorphism. Moreover, if the word $\uu$ is uniformly recurrent, we show that $Θ'$ can be set to the reversal mapping. We also treat one special case of almost $Θ$-rich words. We show that every $Θ$-standard words with seed is an image of an Arnoux-Rauzy word.
In this paper, we provide a new characterization of uniformly recurrent words with finite defect based on a relation between the palindromic and factor complexity. Furthermore, we introduce a class of morphisms P_ret closed under composition and we show that a uniformly recurrent word with finite defect is an image of a rich (also called full) word under a morphism of class P_ret. This class is closely related to the well-known class P defined by Hof, Knill, and Simon; every morphism from P_ret is conjugate to a morphism of class P.
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 some candidates for balanced words (found computationally) having small critical exponents. We also explore a method for proving these results using the automated theorem prover Walnut.
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 open problems. We address lower bounds on the repetition threshold of infinite rich words over 2 and 3-letter alphabets, and construct a candidate infinite rich word over the alphabet $Σ_2=\{0,1\}$ with a small critical exponent of $2+\sqrt{2}/2$. This represents the first progress on an open problem of Vesti from 2017.
A word is called closed if it has a prefix which is also its suffix and there is no internal occurrences of this prefix in the word. In this paper we study words that are rich in closed factors, i.e., which contain the maximal possible number of distinct closed factors. As the main result, we show that for finite words the asymptotics of the maximal number of distinct closed factors in a word of length $n$ is $\frac{n^2}{6}$. For infinite words, we show there exist words such that each their factor of length $n$ contains a quadratic number of distinct closed factors, with uniformly bounded con…
An infinite word x is said to be quasiperiodic if there exists a finite word q such that x is covered by occurrences of q (such a q is called a quasiperiod of x). Using the notion of derivation, we show that this definition is not sufficient to imply any symmetry in an infinite word. Therefore we introduce multi-scale quasiperiodic words, i.e. quasiperiodic words that admit an infinite number of quasiperiods. Such words are uniformly recurrent, this allows us to study the subshift they generate. We prove that multi-scale quasiperiodic subshifts are uniquely ergodic and have zero topological en…
In a recent paper, one of us posed three open problems concerning squarefree arithmetic progressions in infinite words. In this note we solve these problems and prove some additional results.
In this article, we consider the factor complexity of a fixed point of a primitive substitution canonically defined by a beta-numeration system. We provide a necessary and sufficient condition on the Renyi expansion of 1 for having an affine factor complexity map C(n), that is, such that C(n)=an+b for any integer n.
We consider three aspects of avoiding large squares in infinite binary words. First, we construct an infinite binary word avoiding both cubes xxx and squares yy with |y| >= 4; our construction is somewhat simpler than the original construction of Dekking. Second, we construct an infinite binary word avoiding all squares except 00, 11, and 0101; our construction is somewhat simpler than the original construction of Fraenkel and Simpson. In both cases, we also show how to modify our construction to obtain exponentially many words of length n with the given avoidance properties. Finally, we answe…
Prefix normal words are binary words that have no factor with more $1$s than the prefix of the same length. Finite prefix normal words were introduced in [Fici and Lipták, DLT 2011]. In this paper, we study infinite prefix normal words and explore their relationship to some known classes of infinite binary words. In particular, we establish a connection between prefix normal words and Sturmian words, between prefix normal words and abelian complexity, and between prefix normality and lexicographic order.
Two finite words $u$ and $v$ are called abelian equivalent if each letter occurs equally many times in both $u$ and $v$. The abelian closure $\mathcal{A}(\mathbf{x})$ of an infinite word $\mathbf{x}$ is the set of infinite words $\mathbf{y}$ such that, for each factor $u$ of $\mathbf{y}$, there exists a factor $v$ of $\mathbf{x}$ which is abelian equivalent to $u$. The notion of an abelian closure gives a characterization of Sturmian words: among uniformly recurrent binary words, periodic and aperiodic Sturmian words are exactly those words for which $\mathcal{A}(\mathbf{x})$ equals the shift …
For any integer $k>2$, the infinite $k$-bonacci word $W^{(k)}$, on the infinite alphabet is defined as the fixed point of the morphism $φ_k:\mathbb{N}\rightarrow \mathbb{N}^2 \cup \mathbb{N}$, where \begin{equation*} φ_k(ki+j) = \left\{ \begin{array}{ll} (ki)(ki+j+1) & \text{if } j = 0,\cdots ,k-2, (ki+j+1)& \text{if } j =k-1. \end{array} \right. \end{equation*} The finite $k$-bonacci word $W^{(k)}_n$ is then defined as the prefix of $W^{(k)}$ whose length is the $(n+k)$-th $k$-bonacci number. We obtain the structure of all square factors occurring in $W^{(k)}$. Moreover, we prove that the cri…
Recently the Fibonacci word $W$ on an infinite alphabet was introduced by [Zhang et al., Electronic J. Combinatorics 24-2 (2017) #P2.52] as a fixed point of the morphism $ϕ: (2i) \mapsto (2i)(2i+ 1),\ (2i+ 1) \mapsto (2i+ 2)$ over all $i \in \mathbb{N}$. In this paper we investigate the occurrence of squares, palindromes, and Lyndon factors in this infinite word.
Two finite words $u$ and $v$ are called Abelian equivalent if each letter occurs equally many times in both $u$ and $v$. The abelian closure $\mathcal{A}(\mathbf{x})$ of (the shift orbit closure of) an infinite word $\mathbf{x}$ is the set of infinite words $\mathbf{y}$ such that, for each factor $u$ of $\mathbf{y}$, there exists a factor $v$ of $\mathbf{x}$ which is abelian equivalent to $u$. The notion of an abelian closure gives a characterization of Sturmian words: among binary uniformly recurrent words, Sturmian words are exactly those words for which $\mathcal{A}(\mathbf{x})$ equals the …
Carpi constructed an infinite word over a 4-letter alphabet that avoids squares in all subsequences indexed by arithmetic progressions of odd difference. We show a connection between Carpi's construction and the paperfolding words. We extend Carpi's result by constructing uncountably many words that avoid squares in arithmetic progressions of odd difference. We also construct infinite words avoiding overlaps and infinite words avoiding arbitrarily large squares in arithmetic progressions of odd difference. We use these words to construct labelings of the 2-dimensional integer lattice such that…
We construct an infinite binary word with critical exponent 3 that avoids abelian 4-powers. Our method gives an algorithm to determine if certain types of morphic sequences avoid additive powers. We also show that there are $Ω(1.172^n)$ binary words of length $n$ that avoid abelian 4-powers, which improves on previous estimates.
The initial non-repetitive complexity function of an infinite word x (first defined by Moothathu) is the function of n that counts the number of distinct factors of length n that appear at the beginning of x prior to the first repetition of a length-n factor. We examine general properties of the initial non-repetitive complexity function, as well as obtain formulas for the initial non-repetitive complexity of the Thue-Morse word, the Fibonacci word and the Tribonacci word.
In 1976, Dekking showed that there exists an infinite binary word that contains neither squares yy with y >= 4 nor cubes xxx. We show that `cube' can be replaced by any fractional power > 5/2. We also consider the analogous problem where `4' is replaced by any integer. This results in an interesting and subtle hierarchy.
