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 u, we prove that if C(n)=2n+1 for any n in N, then u satisfies the property P and moreover u is rich in palindromes. Also a sufficient condition for the property PE is given. We construct a word demonstrating that P on a ternary alphabet does not imply PE.
A recursively palindromic (RP) word is one that is a palindrome and whose left half-word and right half-word are each RP. Thus ABACABA is, and MADAM is not, an RP word. We count RP words of given length over a finite alphabet and RP compositions of an integer. We use the same method to determine the parity of the Catalan numbers.
In this paper we study the privileged complexity function of the Thue-Morse word. We prove a recursive formula describing this function, and using the formula we show that the function is unbounded and that the values of the function have arbitrarily large gaps of zeros. This demonstrates that the privileged complexity function of an infinite word can drastically differ from its palindromic complexity function, even though there are relations between these functions. Further we study the behavior of palindromes and privileged words in infinite words and the relation between rich words and priv…
Let p be a maximal palindrome in a Sturmian word s=ul_1pl_2v so that p is a palindrome and l_1pl_2 is not for letters l_1 and l_2. Let α(p,p') be a morphism mapping letters a and b respectively to a^pb and a^p'b, |p-p'|=1. In this paper, we characterize the palindromes in a Sturmian word and show that the number of maximal palindromes in a Sturmian word X= α(p,p')(Y) for finite Y and thus X is 2|X|-2|Y|. We show that the set of maximal palindromes in a finite Sturmian word X has the cardinality Σ i=1..n max(pi,p'i) where X is characterized by subsequent mappings of i=1..n.
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.
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, but this does not characterize the class of Sturmian words. We also show that the Thue-Morse word does not have this property. We investigate finite words with the maximal number of distinct palindrome pair factors and characterize the binary words that are not palindrome pairs but have the property that every proper factor is a palindrome pair.
A two-dimensional ($2$D) word is a $2$D palindrome if it is equal to its reverse and it is an HV-palindrome if all its columns and rows are $1$D palindromes. We study some combinatorial and structural properties of HV-palindromes and its comparison with $2$D palindromes. We investigate the maximum number number of distinct non-empty HV-palindromic sub-arrays in any finite $2$D word, thus, proving the conjecture given by Anisiua et al. We also find the least number of HV-palindromes in an infinite $2$D word over a finite alphabet size $q$.
We prove a precise formula for the minimal number K(n) such that every binary word of length $n$ can be divided into K(n) palindromes. Also we estimate the average number $\ol K(n)$ of palindromes composing a random binary word of the length n.
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.
This paper is concerned with palindromes occurring in characteristic Sturmian words $c_α$ of slope $α$, where $α\in (0,1)$ is an irrational. As $c_α$ is a uniformly recurrent infinite word, any (palindromic) factor of $c_α$ occurs infinitely many times in $c_α$ with bounded gaps. Our aim is to completely describe where palindromes occur in $c_α$. In particular, given any palindromic factor $u$ of $c_α$, we shall establish a decomposition of $c_α$ with respect to the occurrences of $u$. Such a decomposition shows precisely where $u$ occurs in $c_α$, and this is directly related to the continued…
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 method based on finite automata.
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.
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 word w and a positive integer P such that |u|_{pal}<P for each factor u of w? We give a partial answer to this question by proving that if an infinite word w satisfies the so-called (k,l)-condition for some k and l, then for each positive integer P there exists a factor u of w whose palindromic length |u|_{pal}>P. In particular, the result holds for all the k-…
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 investigate the same problem when the alphabet has size two.
The palindromic length $\text{PL}(v)$ of a finite word $v$ is the minimal number of palindromes whose concatenation is equal to $v$. In 2013, Frid, Puzynina, and Zamboni conjectured that: If $w$ is an infinite word and $k$ is an integer such that $\text{PL}(u)\leq k$ for every factor $u$ of $w$ then $w$ is ultimately periodic. Suppose that $w$ is an infinite word and $k$ is an integer such $\text{PL}(u)\leq k$ for every factor $u$ of $w$. Let $Ω(w,k)$ be the set of all factors $u$ of $w$ that have more than $\sqrt[k]{k^{-1}\vert u\vert}$ palindromic prefixes. We show that $Ω(w,k)$ is an infini…
The Fibonacci word $W$ on an infinite alphabet was introduced in [Zhang et al., Electronic J. Combinatorics 2017 24(2), 2-52] as a fixed point of the morphism $2i\rightarrow (2i)(2i+1)$, $(2i+1) \rightarrow (2i+2)$, $i\geq 0$. Here, for any integer $k>2$, we define the infinite $k$-bonacci word $W^{(k)}$ on the infinite alphabet as the fixed point of the morphism $φ_k$ on the alphabet $\mathbb{N}$ defined for any $i\geq 0$ and any $0\leq j\leq k-1$, as \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{otherwise}. \end{array} …
Originally introduced and studied by the third and fourth authors together with J. Justin and S. Widmer in arXiv:0801.1656, rich words constitute a new class of finite and infinite words characterized by containing the maximal number of distinct palindromes. Several characterizations of rich words have already been established. A particularly nice characteristic property is that all 'complete returns' to palindromes are palindromes. In this note, we prove that rich words are also characterized by the property that each factor is uniquely determined by its longest palindromic prefix and its lon…
In this paper we study generalization of the reversal mapping realized by an arbitrary involutory antimorphism $Θ$. It generalizes the notion of a palindrome into a $Θ$-palindrome -- a word invariant under $Θ$. For languages closed under $Θ$ we give the relation between $Θ$-palindromic complexity and factor complexity. We generalize the notion of richness to $Θ$-richness and we prove analogous characterizations of words that are $Θ$-rich, especially in the case of set of factors invariant under $Θ$. A criterion for $Θ$-richness of $Θ$-episturmian words is given together with other examples of …
We show that the number of length-n words over a k-letter alphabet having no even palindromic prefix is the same as the number of length-n unbordered words, by constructing an explicit bijection between the two sets. A slightly different but analogous result holds for those words having no odd palindromic prefix. Using known results on borders, we get an asymptotic enumeration for the number of words having no even (resp., odd) palindromic prefix . We obtain an analogous result for words having no nontrivial palindromic prefix. Finally, we obtain similar results for words having no square pref…
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…
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 the minimal bound $3$ for abelian complexity of balanced circular words over a ternary alphabet, we provide a classification of all circular words over a ternary alphabet with abelian complexity subject to this bound. This result also allows us to construct an uncountable set of bi-infinite aperiodic words with abelian complexity equal to $3$.
A word is level if each letter appears in it the same number of times, plus or minus 1. We give a complete characterization of the lengths for which level ternary circular square-free words exist. Key words: combinatorics on words, circular words, necklaces, square-free words, non-repetitive sequences
In this paper we explore various interconnections between rich words, Sturmian words, and trapezoidal words. Rich words, first introduced in arXiv:0801.1656 by the second and third authors together with J. Justin and S. Widmer, constitute a new class of finite and infinite words characterized by having the maximal number of palindromic factors. Every finite Sturmian word is rich, but not conversely. Trapezoidal words were first introduced by the first author in studying the behavior of the subword complexity of finite Sturmian words. Unfortunately this property does not characterize finite Stu…
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 longer rich word.
A binary word is symmetric if it is a palindrome or an antipalindrome. We define a new measure of asymmetry of a binary word equal to the minimal number of letters of the word whose deleting from the word yields a symmetric word and obtain upper and lower estimations of this measure.
We prove that the `connective constant' for ternary square-free words is at least $2^{1/17} = 1.0416 ... $, improving on Brinkhuis and Brandenburg's lower bounds of $2^{1/24}=1.0293 ...$ and $2^{1/22}=1.032 ...$ respectively. This is the first improvement since 1983.
We show that the 2-abelian complexity of the infinite Thue-Morse word is 2-regular, and other properties of the 2-abelian complexity, most notably that it is a concatenation of palindromes of increasing length. We also show sharp bounds for the length of unique extensions of factors of size n, occurring in the Thue-Morse word.
Improved upper and lower bounds on the number of square-free ternary words are obtained. The upper bound is based on the enumeration of square-free ternary words up to length 110. The lower bound is derived by constructing generalised Brinkhuis triples. The problem of finding such triples can essentially be reduced to a combinatorial problem, which can efficiently be treated by computer. In particular, it is shown that the number of square-free ternary words of length n grows at least as 65^(n/40), replacing the previous best lower bound of 2^(n/17).
Trapezoidal words are words having at most $n+1$ distinct factors of length $n$ for every $n\ge 0$. They therefore encompass finite Sturmian words. We give combinatorial characterizations of trapezoidal words and exhibit a formula for their enumeration. We then separate trapezoidal words into two disjoint classes: open and closed. A trapezoidal word is closed if it has a factor that occurs only as a prefix and as a suffix; otherwise it is open. We investigate open and closed trapezoidal words, in relation with their special factors. We prove that Sturmian palindromes are closed trapezoidal wor…
Prefix normal words are binary words in which each prefix has at least the same number of $\so$s as any factor of the same length. Firstly introduced by Fici and Lipták in 2011, the problem of determining the index of the prefix equivalence relation is still open. In this paper, we investigate two aspects of the problem, namely prefix normal palindromes and so-called collapsing words (extending the notion of critical words). We prove characterizations for both the palindromes and the collapsing words and show their connection. Based on this, we show that still open problems regarding prefix no…
The article provides a criterion for the substitution of symmetric Sturm words infinite on both sides and its proof. This work was carried out with the help of the Russian Science Foundation Grant N 17-11-01377.
We investigate combinatorial properties of a kind of insets we defined in an earlier paper, interpreting them now in terms of restricted ternary words. This allows us to give new combinatorial interpretations of a number of known integer sequences, namely the coefficients of Chebyshev polynomials of both kinds, Fibonacci numbers, Delannoy numbers, asymmetric Delannoy numbers, Sulanke numbers, coordinating sequences for some cubic lattices, crystal ball sequences for some cubic lattices, and others. We also obtain several new properties of said insets. In particular, we derive three generating …
This paper focuses on generalized pseudostandard words, defined by de Luca and De Luca in 2006. In every step of the construction, the involutory antimorphism to be applied for the pseudopalindromic closure changes and is given by a so called directive bi-sequence. The concept of a normalized form of directive bi-sequences was introduced by Blondin-Massé et al. in 2013 and an algorithm for finding the normalized directive bi-sequence over a binary alphabet was provided. In this paper, we present an algorithm to find the normalized form of any directive bi-sequence over a ternary alphabet. More…
Trapezoidal words are finite words having at most n+1 distinct factors of length n, for every n>=0. They encompass finite Sturmian words. We distinguish trapezoidal words into two disjoint subsets: open and closed trapezoidal words. A trapezoidal word is closed if its longest repeated prefix has exactly two occurrences in the word, the second one being a suffix of the word. Otherwise it is open. We show that open trapezoidal words are all primitive and that closed trapezoidal words are all Sturmian. We then show that trapezoidal palindromes are closed (and therefore Sturmian). This allows us t…
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 length of factors of infinite words fixed by morphisms of the so-called class $\mathcal{P}$ introduced by Hof, Knill and Simon. We show that it grows at most logarithmically with the length of the factor. For the Fibonacci word and the Thue-Morse word we provide estimates on the constants of the growth. We also construct an infinite word rich in palindromes for which the palindromic length grows as $\sqrt{n}$.
Let $D^+$ be the first octant of the Euclidean space and consider the integral cube grid $G$ in $D^+$. The intersections of each line with $G$ form an infinite sequence of three letters which can be considered as an extension of well-known Sturmian words. A classification of such linear ternary sequences is presented and a family of examples is constructed from a notable sequence $S^M$ which could be viewed as an analogue of the Fibonacci word in the family of Sturmian words. The factor complexity and the palindromic complexity of these linear ternary sequences are also studied. The last resul…
We consider two {seemingly} different definitions of infinite words which contain {the} utmost number of palindromes. We show that these two definitions coincide. {The keynote of the proof is a meticulous inspection of properties of complete return words and the application of some basic graph theory.} In fact, we provide another proof of the result announced in \cite{Zamboni}.
In this paper we prove that for any infinite word W whose set of factors is closed under reversal, the following conditions are equivalent: (I) all complete returns to palindromes are palindromes; (II) P(n) + P(n+1) = C(n+1) - C(n) + 2 for all n, where P (resp. C) denotes the palindromic complexity (resp. factor complexity) function of W, which counts the number of distinct palindromic factors (resp. factors) of each length in W.
A \emph{square} is a finite non-empty word consisting of two identical adjacent blocks. A word is \emph{square-free} if it does not contain a square as a factor. In any finite word one may delete the repeated block of a square, obtaining thereby a shorter word. By repeating this process, a square-free word is eventually reached, which we call a \emph{reduct} of the original word. How many different reducts a single word may have? It is not hard to prove that any binary word has exactly one reduct. We prove that there exist ternary words with arbitrarily many reducts. Moreover, the function cou…
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.
Everybody has certainly heard about palindromes: words that stay the same when read backwards. For instance kayak, radar, or rotor. Mathematicians are interested in palindromic numbers: positive integers whose expansion in a certain integer base is a palindrome. The following problems are studied: palindromic primes, palindromic squares and higher powers, multibased palindromic numbers, etc. In this paper, we define and study antipalindromic numbers: positive integers whose expansion in a certain integer base is an antipalindrome. We present new results concerning divisibility and antipalindro…
A word $u$ defined over an alphabet $\mathcal{A}$ is $c$-balanced ($c\in\mathbb{N}$) if for all pairs of factors $v$, $w$ of $u$ of the same length and for all letters $a\in\mathcal{A}$, the difference between the number of letters $a$ in $v$ and $w$ is less or equal to $c$. In this paper we consider a ternary alphabet $\mathcal{A}=\{L,S,M\}$ and a class of substitutions $ϕ_p$ defined by $ϕ_p(L)=L^pS$, $ϕ_p(S)=M$, $ϕ_p(M)=L^{p-1}S$ where $p>1$. We prove that the fixed point of $ϕ_p$, formally written as $ϕ_p^\infty(L)$, is 3-balanced and that its Abelian complexity is bounded above by the valu…
In [X. Droubay et al, Episturmian words and some constructions of de Luca and Rauzy, Theoret. Comput. Sci. 255 (2001)], it was proved that every word w has at most |w|+1 many distinct palindromic factors, including the empty word. The unified study of words which achieve this limit was initiated in [A. Glen et al, Palindromic richness, Eur. Jour. of Comb. 30 (2009)]. They called these words rich (in palindromes). This article contains several results about rich words and especially extending them. We say that a rich word w can be extended richly with a word u if wu is rich. Some notions are al…
An efficient, when compared to exhaustive enumeration, algorithm for computing the number of square-free words of length $n$ over the alphabet $\{a, b, c\}$ is presented.
For a given finite group $G$ consisting of morphisms and antimorphisms of a free monoid $\mathcal{A}^*$, we study infinite words with language closed under the group $G$. We focus on the notion of $G$-richness which describes words rich in generalized palindromic factors, i.e., in factors $w$ satisfying $Θ(w) = w$ for some antimorphism $Θ\in G$. We give several equivalent descriptions which are generalizations of know characterizations of rich words (in the terms of classical palindromes) and show two examples of $G$-rich words.
Any amicable pair ϕ, ψ of Sturmian morphisms enables a construction of a ternary morphism η which preserves the set of infinite words coding 3-interval exchange. We determine the number of amicable pairs with the same incidence matrix in $SL^\pm(2,N)$ and we study incidence matrices associated with the corresponding ternary morphisms η.
We consider finite trees with edges labeled by letters on a finite alphabet $\varSigma$. Each pair of nodes defines a unique labeled path whose trace is a word of the free monoid $\varSigma^*$. The set of all such words defines the language of the tree. In this paper, we investigate the palindromic complexity of trees and provide hints for an upper bound on the number of distinct palindromes in the language of a tree.
We enumerate all ternary length-l square-free words, which are words avoiding squares of words up to length l, for l<=24. We analyse the singular behaviour of the corresponding generating functions. This leads to new upper entropy bounds for ternary square-free words. We then consider ternary square-free words with fixed letter densities, thereby proving exponential growth for certain ensembles with various letter densities. We derive consequences for the free energy and entropy of ternary square-free words.
