A square-free word $w$ over a fixed alphabet $Σ$ is extremal if every word obtained from $w$ by inserting a single letter from $Σ$ (at any position) contains a square. Grytczuk et al. recently introduced the concept of extremal square-free word, and demonstrated that there are arbitrarily long extremal square-free ternary words. We find all lengths which admit an extremal square-free ternary word. In particular, we show that there is an extremal square-free ternary word of every sufficiently large length. We also solve the analogous problem for circular words.
Circular words are cyclically ordered finite sequences of letters. We give a computer-free proof of the following result by Currie: square-free circular words over the ternary alphabet exist for all lengths $l$ except for 5, 7, 9, 10, 14, and 17. Our proof reveals an interesting connection between ternary square-free circular words and closed walks in the $K_{3{,}3}$ graph. In addition, our proof implies an exponential lower bound on the number of such circular words of length $l$ and allows one to list all lengths $l$ for which such a circular word is unique up to isomorphism.
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.
In this note we report the classification of all symmetric 2-(36,15,6) designs that admit an automorphism of order 2 and their incidence matrices generate an extremal ternary self-dual code. It is shown that up to isomorphism, there exists only one such design, having a full automorphism group of order 24, and the ternary code spanned by its incidence matrix is equivalent to the Pless symmetry code.
We give restrictions on the weight enumerators of ternary near-extremal self-dual codes of length divisible by $12$ and quaternary near-extremal Hermitian self-dual codes of length divisible by $6$. We consider the weight enumerators for which there is a ternary near-extremal self-dual code of length $12m$ for $m =3,4,5,6$. Also we consider the weight enumerators for which there is a quaternary near-extremal Hermitian self-dual code of length $6m$ for $m =4,5,6$.
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.
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 compute its abelian complexity and determine the lengths of its bispecial factors. Finally, we give a characterization of p in terms of avoided factors.
We begin a systematic study of the relations between subword complexity of infinite words and their power avoidance. Among other things, we show that -- the Thue-Morse word has the minimum possible subword complexity over all overlap-free binary words and all $(\frac 73)$-power-free binary words, but not over all $(\frac 73)^+$-power-free binary words; -- the twisted Thue-Morse word has the maximum possible subword complexity over all overlap-free binary words, but no word has the maximum subword complexity over all $(\frac 73)$-power-free binary words; -- if some word attains the minimum poss…
An overlap-free (or $β$-free) word $w$ over a fixed alphabet $Σ$ is extremal if every word obtained from $w$ by inserting a single letter from $Σ$ at any position contains an overlap (or a factor of exponent at least $β$, respectively). We find all lengths which admit an extremal overlap-free binary word. For every extended real number $β$ such that $2^+\leqβ\leq 8/3$, we show that there are arbitrarily long extremal $β$-free binary words.
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
Given an infinite word X over an alphabet A a letter b occurring in X, and a total order σon A, we call the smallest word with respect to σstarting with b in the shift orbit closure of X an extremal word of X. In this paper we consider the extremal words of morphic words. If X = g(f^ω(a)) for some morphisms f and g, we give two simple conditions on f and g that guarantees that all extremal words are morphic. This happens, in particular, when X is a primitive morphic or a binary pure morphic word. Our techniques provide characterizations of the extremal words of the Period-doubling word and the…
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.
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.
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).
We introduce the notion of general prints of a word, which is substantialized by certain canonical decompositions, to study repetition in words. These associated decompositions, when applied recursively on a word, result in what we term as core prints of the word. The length of the path to attain a core print of a general word is scrutinized. This paper also studies the class of square-free ternary words with respect to the Parikh matrix mapping, which is an extension of the classical Parikh mapping. It is shown that there are only finitely many matrix-equivalence classes of ternary words such…
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…
In 2013, Nebe and Villar gave a series of ternary self-dual codes of length $2(p+1)$ for a prime $p$ congruent to $5$ modulo $8$. As a consequence, the third ternary extremal self-dual code of length $60$ was found. We show that the ternary self-dual code contains codewords which form a Hadamard matrix of order $2(p+1)$ when $p$ is congruent to $5$ modulo $24$. In addition, it is shown that the ternary self-dual code is generated by the rows of the Hadamard matrix. We also demonstrate that the third ternary extremal self-dual code of length $60$ contains at least two inequivalent Hadamard matr…
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…
A word is square-free if it does not contain any square (a word of the form $XX$), and is extremal square-free if it cannot be extended to a new square-free word by inserting a single letter at any position. Grytczuk, Kordulewski, and Niewiadomski proved that there exist infinitely many ternary extremal square-free words. We establish that there are no extremal square-free words over any alphabet of size at least 17.
Ternary self-dual codes have been classified for lengths up to 20. At length 24, a classification of only extremal self-dual codes is known. In this paper, we give a complete classification of ternary self-dual codes of length 24 using the classification of 24-dimensional odd unimodular lattices.
We prove that the Fibonacci word $f$ satisfies among all characteristic Sturmian words, three interesting extremal properties. The first concerns the length and the second the minimal period of its palindromic prefixes. Each of these two properties characterizes $f$ up to a renaming of its letters. A third property concerns the number of occurrences of the letter $b$ in its palindromic prefixes. It characterizes uniquely $f$ among all characteristic Sturmian words having the prefix $abaa$.
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…
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…
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…
Recently, Grytczuk, Kordulewski, and Niewiadomski defined an extremal word over an alphabet $\mathbb{A}$ to be a word with the property that inserting any letter from $\mathbb{A}$ at any position in the word yields a given pattern. In this paper, we determine the number of extremal $XY_1XY_2X\dots XY_tX$-avoiding words on a $k$-letter alphabet. We also derive a lower bound on the shortest possible length of an extremal square-free word on a $k$-letter alphabet that grows exponentially in $k$.
Let $u \shuffle v$ denote the set of all shuffles of the words $u$ and $v$. It is shown that for each integer $n \geq 3$ there exists a square-free ternary word $u$ of length $n$ such that $u\shuffle u$ contains a square-free word. This property is then shown to also hold for infinite words, i.e., there exists an infinite square-free word $u$ on three letters such that $u$ can be shuffled with itself to produce an infinite square-free word $w \in u \shuffle u$.
We study the avoidability of long $k$-abelian-squares and $k$-abelian-cubes on binary and ternary alphabets. For $k=1$, these are Mäkelä's questions. We show that one cannot avoid abelian-cubes of abelian period at least $2$ in infinite binary words, and therefore answering negatively one question from Mäkelä. Then we show that one can avoid $3$-abelian-squares of period at least $3$ in infinite binary words and $2$-abelian-squares of period at least 2 in infinite ternary words. Finally we study the minimum number of distinct $k$-abelian-squares that must appear in an infinite binary word.
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.
A word is \emph{square-free} if it does not contain non-empty factors of the form $XX$. In 1906 Thue proved that there exist arbitrarily long square-free words over $3$-letter alphabet. We consider a new type of square-free words. A square-free word is \emph{extremal} if it cannot be extended to a new square-free word by inserting a single letter on arbitrary position. We prove that there exist infinitely many extremal words over $3$-letter alphabet. Some parts of our construction relies on computer verifications. We also pose some related open problems.
We show that the set of binary words containing overlaps is not unambiguously context-free and that the set of ternary words containing overlaps is not context-free. We also show that the set of binary words that are not subwords of the Thue-Morse word is not unambiguously context-free.
Let $s_n$ be the number of words consisting of the ternary alphabet consisting of the digits 0, 1, and 2 such that no subword (or factor) is a square (a word concatenated with itself, e.g., $11$, $1212$, or $102102$). From computational evidence, $s_n$ grows exponentially at a rate of about $1.317277^n$. While known upper bounds are already relatively close to the conjectured rate, effective lower bounds are much more difficult to obtain. In this paper, we construct a $54$-Brinkhuis $952$-triple, which leads to an improved lower bound on the number of $n$-letter ternary squarefree words: $952^…
We introduced the notation of a set of prohibitions and give definitions of a complete set and a crucial word with respect to a given set of prohibitions. We consider 3 particular sets which appear in different areas of mathematics and for each of them examine the length of a crucial word. One of these sets is proved to be incomplete. The problem of determining lengths of words that are free from a set of prohibitions is shown to be NP-complete, although the related problem of whether or not a given set of prohibitions is complete is known to be effectively solvable.
A position $p$ in a word $w$ is critical if the minimal local period at $p$ is equal to the global period of $w$. According to the Critical Factorisation Theorem all words of length at least two have a critical point. We study the number $η(w)$ of critical points of square-free ternary words $w$, i.e., words over a three letter alphabet. We show that the sufficiently long square-free words $w$ satisfy $η(w) \le |w|-5$ where $|w|$ denotes the length of $w$. Moreover, the bound $|w|-5$ is reached by infinitely many words. On the other hand, every square-free word $w$ has at least $|w|/4$ critica…
We study words that barely avoid repetitions, for several senses of "barely". A squarefree (respectively, overlap-free, cubefree) word is irreducible if removing any one of its interior letters creates a square (respectively, overlap, cube). A squarefree (respectively, overlap-free, cubefree) word is delicate if changing any one of its letters creates a square (respectively, overlap, cube). We classify the lengths of irreducible and delicate squarefree, overlap-free, and cubefree words over binary and ternary alphabets.
In a 1983 paper, G. Ramharter asks what are the extremal arrangements for the cyclic analogues of the regular and semi-regular continuants first introduced by T.S. Motzkin and E.G. Straus in 1956. In this paper we answer this question by showing that for each set $A$ consisting of positive integers $1<a_1<a_2<\cdots <a_k$ and a $k$-term partition $P: n_1+n_2 + \cdots + n_k=n$, there exists a unique (up to reversal) cyclic word $x$ which maximizes (resp. minimizes) the regular cyclic continuant $K^{\circlearrowright}(\cdot)$ amongst all cyclic words over $A$ with Parikh vector $(n_1,n_2,\ldots,…
In combinatorics on words, a word $w$ over an alphabet $Σ$ is said to avoid a pattern $p$ over an alphabet $Δ$ if there is no factor $f$ of $w$ such that $f=h(p)$ where $h:Δ^*\toΣ^*$ is a non-erasing morphism. A pattern $p$ is said to be $k$-avoidable if there exists an infinite word over a $k$-letter alphabet that avoids $p$. A pattern is \emph{doubled} if every variable occurs at least twice. Doubled patterns are known to be $3$-avoidable. Currie, Mol, and Rampersad have considered a generalized notion which allows variable occurrences to be reversed. That is, $h(V^R)$ is the mirror image of…
A word is square-free if it does not contain nonempty factors of the form $XX$. In 1906 Thue proved that there exist arbitrarily long square-free words over a $3$-letter alphabet. It was proved recently [7] that among these words there are infinitely many extremal ones, that is, having a square in every single-letter extension. We study diverse problems concerning extensions of words preserving the property of avoiding squares. Our main motivation is the conjecture stating that there are no extremal words over a $4$-letter alphabet. We also investigate a natural recursive procedure of generati…
We introduce new avoidability problems for words by considering equivalence relations, k-abelian equivalences, which lie properly in between equality and commutative equality, i.e. abelian equality. For two k-abelian equivalent words the numbers of occurrences of different factors of length k coincide and the prefixies (resp. suffixies) of length k-1 are equal as well. The size of the smallest alphabet avoiding 2-repetitions of words, i.e. squares, is three and for abelian squares it is four. It follows that for 2-abelian squares this size has to be three or four. Similarly, the size of the sm…
We discuss relations between quantum BPS invariants defined in terms of a product decomposition of certain series, and difference equations (quantum A-polynomials) that annihilate such series. We construct combinatorial models whose structure is encoded in the form of such difference equations, and whose generating functions (Hilbert-Poincaré series) are solutions to those equations and reproduce generating series that encode BPS invariants. Furthermore, BPS invariants in question are expressed in terms of Lyndon words in an appropriate language, thereby relating counting of BPS states to the …
Abelian maximal pattern complexity and extremal words
School of Mathematical Sciences, Beihang University（北京航空航天大学数学科学学院）；School of Mathematics and Information Science, Shandong Technology and Business University（山东工商学院数学与信息科学学院）
Let us recall the well-known Shirshov's Height Theorem. "Let A be a finitely generated algebra of degree d. Then there exists a finite set Y which is the subset of A that A has and an integer h' = h(A) such that A has Shirshov's height h' over set Y. For Y we may take the set of words of length <d. Such Y is called a Shirshov's base of algebra A." Shirshov's original proof was purely combinatorical, but did not provide a reasonable upper estimate for the height. Kolotov obtained an estimate for h(A) < s^(s^m) (m = deg(A), and s is the number of generators) in 1981. I. Zelmanov asked for an exp…
Let $[n]=\{1, \ldots, n\}$. A sequence $u=a_1a_2\dots a_l$ over $[n]$ is called $k$-sparse if $a_i = a_j$, $i > j$ implies $i-j\geq k$. In other words, every consecutive subsequence of $u$ of length at most $k$ does not have letters in common. Let $u,v$ be two sequences. We say that $u$ is $v$-free, if $u$ does not contain a subsequence isomorphic to $v$. Suppose there are only $k$ letters appearing in $v$. The extremal function Ex$(v,n)$ is defined as the maximum length of all the $v$-free and $k$-sparse sequences. In this paper, we study a generalization of the extremal function Ex$(v,n)$.
This paper analyses stable commutator length in groups Z^r * Z^s. We bound scl from above in terms of the reduced wordlength (sharply in the limit) and from below in terms of the answer to an associated subset-sum type problem. Combining both estimates, we prove that, as n tends to infinity, words of reduced length n generically have scl arbitrarily close to n/4 - 1. We then show that, unless P=NP, there is no polynomial time algorithm to compute scl of efficiently encoded words in F2. All these results are obtained by exploiting the fundamental connection between scl and the geometry of certa…
Joint Graduate School of Mathematics for Innovation, Kyushu University（九州大学数学创新联合研究生院）；Graduate School of Informatics and Engineering, University of Electro-Communications（电子通信大学信息与工程研究生院）；Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Yamanashi（山梨大学计算机科学与工程系）；Department of Informatics, Kyushu University（九州大学信息学系）
