We find generating functions for the number of words avoiding certain patterns or sets of patterns on at most 2 distinct letters and determine which of them are equally avoided. We also find the exact number of words avoiding certain patterns and provide bijective proofs for the resulting formulas.
We find exact formulas and/or generating functions for the number of words avoiding 3-letter generalized multipermutation patterns and find which of them are equally avoided.
We review the recent progress in the investigation of powerfree words, with particular emphasis on binary cubefree and ternary squarefree words. Besides various bounds on the entropy, we provide bounds on letter frequencies and consider their empirical distribution obtained by an enumeration of binary cubefree words up to length 80.
Carpi (1993) and Lepisto (1994) proved independently that smooth words are cube-free for the alphabet {1, 2}, but nothing is known on whether for the other 2-letter alphabets, smooth words are k-power-free for some suitable positive integer k. In this paper, we first establish the derivative formula of the concatenation of two smooth words and power derivative formula of smooth words over arbitrary 2-letter alphabets. Then by making use of power derivative formula, for arbitrary 2-letter alphabet {a, b} with a, b being positive integers and a<b, we prove that smooth words are (b+1)-power-free …
A word is square-free if it does not contain a nonempty word of the form $XX$ as a factor. A famous 1906 result of Thue asserts that there exist arbitrarily long square-free words over a $3$-letter alphabet. We study square-free words with additional properties involving single-letter deletions and extensions of words. A square-free word is steady if it remains square-free after deletion of any single letter. We prove that there exist infinitely many steady words over a $4$-letter alphabet. We also demonstrate that one may construct steady words of any length by picking letters from arbitrary …
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.
Given a countable set X (usually taken to be N or Z), an infinite permutation $π$ of X is a linear ordering $<_π$ of X. This paper investigates the combinatorial complexity of infinite permutations on N associated with the image of uniformly recurrent aperiodic binary words under the letter doubling map. An upper bound for the complexity is found for general words, and a formula for the complexity is established for the Sturmian words and the Thue-Morse word.
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 $k$.
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…
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.
In 2008, Kurosaki gave a new construction of a (bi-)infinite squarefree word over three letters. We show that in fact Kurosaki's word avoids 7/4+-powers, which, as shown by Dejean, is optimal over a 3-letter alphabet.
A 3-dimensional Catalan word is a word on three letters so that the subword on any two letters is a Dyck path. For a given Dyck path $D$, a recently defined statistic counts the number of Catalan words with the property that any subword on two letters is exactly $D$. In this paper, we enumerate Dyck paths with this statistic equal to certain values, including all primes. The formulas obtained are in terms of Motzkin numbers and Motzkin ballot numbers.
Sturmian sequences are well-known as the ones having minimal complexity over a 2-letter alphabet. They are also the balanced sequences over a 2-letter alphabet and the sequences describing discrete lines. They are famous and have been extensively studied since the 18th century. One of the {extensions} of these sequences over a $k$-letter alphabet, with $k\geq 3$, are the episturmian sequences, which generalizes a construction of Sturmian sequences using the palindromic closure operation. There exists a finite version of the Sturmian sequences called the Christoffel words. They are known since …
We say that a word $w$ on a totally ordered alphabet avoids the word $v$ if there are no subsequences in $w$ order-equivalent to $v$. In this paper we suggest a new approach to the enumeration of words on at most $k$ letters avoiding a given pattern. By studying an automaton which for fixed $k$ generates the words avoiding a given pattern we derive several previously known results for these kind of problems, as well as many new. In particular, we give a simple proof of the formula \cite{Reg1998} for exact asymptotics for the number of words on $k$ letters of length $n$ that avoids the pattern …
It is well known that Universal Cycles of $k$-letter words on an $n$-letter alphabet exist for all $k$ and $n$. In this paper, we prove that Universal Cycles exist for restricted classes of words, including: non-bijections, equitable words (under suitable restrictions), ranked permutations, and "passwords".
We study generating functions for the number of permutations on n letters avoiding 132 and an arbitrary permutation $τ$ on k letters, or containing $τ$ exactly once. In several interesting cases the generating function depends only on k and is expressed via Chebyshev polynomials of the second kind.
We study generating functions for the number of even (odd) permutations on n letters avoiding 132 and an arbitrary permutation $τ$ on k letters, or containing $τ$ exactly once. In several interesting cases the generating function depends only on k and is expressed via Chebyshev polynomials of the second kind.
Letters $x$ and $y$ alternate in a word $w$ if after deleting in $w$ all letters but the copies of $x$ and $y$ we either obtain a word $xyxy\cdots$ (of even or odd length) or a word $yxyx\cdots$ (of even or odd length). A graph $G=(V,E)$ is word-representable if and only if there exists a word $w$ over the alphabet $V$ such that letters $x$ and $y$ alternate in $w$ if and only if $xy\in E$. Word-representable graphs generalize several important classes of graphs such as circle graphs, $3$-colorable graphs and comparability graphs. This paper offers a comprehensive introduction to the theory of…
For every $n\geq 27$, we show that the number of $n/(n-1)^+$-free words (i.e., threshold words) of length $k$ on $n$ letters grows exponentially in $k$. This settles all but finitely many cases of a conjecture of Ochem.
Recently, Babson and Steingrimsson (see [BS]) introduced generalized permutations patterns that allow the requirement that two adjacent letters in a pattern must be adjacent in the permutation. We study generating functions for the number of permutations on $n$ letters avoiding $1-3-2$ (or containing $1-3-2$ exactly once) and an arbitrary generalized pattern $τ$ on $k$ letters, or containing $τ$ exactly once. In several cases the generating function depends only on $k$ and is expressed via Chebyshev polynomials of the second kind, and generating function of Motzkin numbers.
Morphic words are letter-to-letter images of fixed points $x$ of morphisms on finite alphabets. There are situations where these letter-to-letter maps do not occur naturally, but have to be replaced by a morphism. We call this a decoration of $x$. Theoretically, decorations of morphic words are again morphic words, but in several problems the idea of decorating the fixed point of a morphism is useful. We present two of such problems. The first considers the so called $AA$ sequences, where $α$ is a quadratic irrational, $A$ is the Beatty sequence defined by $A(n)=\lfloor αn\rfloor$, and $AA$ is…
In previous papers, for an arithmetical function $f_0$, we defined functions $f_m$ and $c_m$ and designated numbers of restricted words over a finite alphabet counted by these functions. In this paper, we examine the reverse problem for five specific types of restricted words. Namely, we find the initial function $f_0$ such that $f_m$ and $c_m$ enumerate these words. In each case, we derive explicit formulas for $f_m$ and $c_m$. Fibonacci, Merssen, Pell, Jacosthal, Tribonacci, and Padovan numbers all appear as values of $f_m$, so we obtain new formulas for these numbers. Also, we combinatorial…
Initially stated in terms of Beatty sequences, the Fraenkel conjecture can be reformulated as follows: for a $k$-letter alphabet A, with a fixed $k \geq 3$, there exists a unique balanced infinite word, up to letter permutations and shifts, that has mutually distinct letter frequencies. Motivated by the Fraenkel conjecture, we study in this paper whether two Christoffel words can be superimposed. Following from previous works on this conjecture using Beatty sequences, we give a necessary and sufficient condition for the superimposition of two Christoffel words having same length, and more gene…
We present a method for the enumeration of restricted words over a finite alphabet. Restrictions are described through the inclusion or exclusion of suitable building blocks used to construct the words by concatenation. Our approach, which relies on the invert transform and its representation in terms of partial Bell polynomials, allows us to generalize and address in a systematic manner previous results in the subject.
Universal Cycles, or U-cycles, as originally defined by de Bruijn, are an efficient method to exhibit a large class of combinatorial objects in a compressed fashion, and with no repeats. de Bruijn's theorem states that U-cycles for $n$ letter words on a $k$ letter alphabet exist for all $k$ and $n$. Much has already been proved about Universal Cycles for a variety of other objects. This work is intended to augment the current research in the area by exhibiting U-cycles for {\it complementary classes}. Results will be presented that exhibit the existence of U-cycles for class-alternating words …
A permutation $π$ is said to be {\em Dumont permutations of the first kind} if each even integer in $π$ must be followed by a smaller integer, and each odd integer is either followed by a larger integer or is the last element of $π$ (see, for example, \cite{Z}). In \cite{D} Dumont showed that certain classes of permutations on $n$ letters are counted by the Genocchi numbers. In particular, Dumont showed that the $(n+1)$st Genocchi number is the number of Dummont permutations of the first kind on $2n$ letters. In this paper we study the number of Dumont permutations of the first kind on $n$ let…
We define a quantity $c_m(n,k)$ as a generalization of the notion of the composition of the positive integer $n$ into $k$ parts. We proceed to derive some known properties of this quantity. In particular, we relate two partial Bell polynomials, in which the sequence of the variables of one polynomial is the invert transform of the sequence of the variables of the other. We connect the quantities $c_m(n,k)$ and $c_{m-1}(n,k)$ via Pascal matrices. We then relate $c_m(n,k)$ with the numbers of some restricted words over a finite alphabet. We develop a method which transfers some properties of res…
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.
Let $γ_{a,b}(n)$ be the number of smooth words of length $n$ over the alphabet $\{a,b\}$ with $a<b$. Say that a smooth word $w$ is \emph{left fully extendable} (LFE) if both $aw$ and $bw$ are smooth. In this paper, we prove that for any positive number $ξ$ and positive integer $n_{0}$ such that the proportion of $b$'s is larger than $ξ$ for each LFE word of length exceeding $n_0$, there are two constants $c_{1}\,\textrm{and}\, c_{2}$ such that for each positive integer $n$, one has {eqnarray} c_{1}\cdot n^{\frac{\log (2b-1)}{\log (1+(a+b-2)(1-ξ))}}<γ_{a,b}(n)< c_2\cdot n^{\frac{\log (2b-1)}{\l…
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 …
A finite deterministic (semi)automaton $\mathcal{A} =(Q,Σ,δ)$ is $k$-compressible if there is some word $w\in Σ^+$ such that the image of its state set $Q$ under the natural action of $w$ is reduced by at least $k$ states. Such word, if it exists, is called a $k$-compressing word for $\mathcal{A}$. A word is $k$-collapsing if it is $k$-compressing for each $k$-compressible automaton. We compute a set $W$ of short words such that each $3$-compressible automata on a two letter alphabet is $3$-compressed at least by a word in $W$. Then we construct a shortest common superstring of the words in $W…
In this short note, we first associate a new simple undirected graph with a given word over an ordered alphabet of $n$-letters. We will call it the Lyndon graph of that word. Then, we introduce the concept of the Lyndon-word representable graph as a graph isomorphic to a Lyndon graph of some word. Then, we introduce the generalized Stirling cycle number $S(N;n,k)$ as the number words of length $N$ with $k$ distinct Lydon words in their Lyndon factorization over an ordered alphabet of $n$-letters . Finally, we conclude the paper with several interesting open questions and conjectures for intere…
A permutation is said to be \emph{alternating} if it starts with rise and then descents and rises come in turn. In this paper we study the generating function for the number of alternating permutations on $n$ letters that avoid or contain exactly once 132 and also avoid or contain exactly once an arbitrary pattern on $k$ letters. In several interesting cases the generating function depends only on $k$ and is expressed via Chebyshev polynomials of the second kind.
We exhibit a recurrence on the number of discrete line segments joining two integer points in the plane using an encoding of such segments as balanced words of given length and height over the two-letter alphabet $\{0,1\}$. We give generating functions and study the asymptotic behaviour. As a particular case, we focus on the symmetrical discrete segments which are encoded by balanced palindromes.
We give several modifications of the Goulden-Jackson Cluster method for finding generating functions for words avoiding a given set of forbidden words. Our modifications include functions which can take into account various 'weights' on words, including single letter probability distributions, double letter (i.e. pairwise) probability distributions, and triple letter probability distributions. We also describe an alternative, recursive approach to finding such generating functions. We describe Maple implementations of the various modifications. The accompanying Maple package is available at th…
Brlek et al. (2008) studied smooth infinite words and established some results on letter frequency, recurrence, reversal and complementation for 2-letter alphabets having same parity. In this paper, we explore smooth infinite words over $n$-letter alphabet $\{a_1,a_2,...,a_n\}$, where $a_1<a_2<...<a_n$ are positive integers and have same remainder when divided by $n$. And let $a_i=n\cdot q_i+r,\;q_i\in N$ for $i=1,2,...,n$, where $r=0,1,2,...,n-1$. We use distinct methods to prove that (1) if $r=0$, the letters frequency of two times differentiable well-proportioned infinite words is $1/n$, wh…
Distinct letters $x$ and $y$ alternate in a word $w$ if after deleting in $w$ all letters but the copies of $x$ and $y$ we either obtain a word of the form $xyxy\cdots$ (of even or odd length) or a word of the form $yxyx\cdots$ (of even or odd length). A graph $G=(V,E)$ is word-representable if there exists a word $w$ over the alphabet $V$ such that letters $x$ and $y$ alternate in $w$ if and only if $xy$ is an edge in $E$. In this paper we initiate the study of word-representable Toeplitz graphs, which are Riordan graphs of the Appell type. We prove that several general classes of Toeplitz gr…
Distinct letters $x$ and $y$ alternate in a word $w$ if after deleting in $w$ all letters but the copies of $x$ and $y$ we either obtain a word of the form $xyxy\cdots$ (of even or odd length) or a word of the form $yxyx\cdots$ (of even or odd length). A simple graph $G=(V,E)$ is word-representable if there exists a word $w$ over the alphabet $V$ such that letters $x$ and $y$ alternate in $w$ if and only if $xy$ is an edge in $E$. Thus, edges of $G$ are defined by avoiding the consecutive pattern 11 in a word representing $G$, that is, by avoiding $xx$ and $yy$. In 2017, Jeff Remmel has introd…
In [GM] Guibert and Mansour studied involutions on n letters avoiding (or containing exactly once) 132 and avoiding (or containing exactly once) an arbitrary pattern on k letters. They also established a bijection between 132-avoiding involutions and Dyck word prefixes of same length. Extending this bijection to bilateral words allows to determine more parameters; in particular, we consider the number of inversions and rises of the involutions onto the words. This is the starting point for considering two different directions: even/odd involutions and statistics of some generalized patterns. T…
In this document we achieve exact and asymptotic enumeration of words, compositions over a finite group, and/or integer compositions characterized by local restrictions and, separately, subsequence pattern avoidance. We also count cyclically restricted and circular objects. This either fills gaps in the current literature by e.g. considering particular new patterns, or involves general progress, notably with locally restricted compositions over a finite group. We associate these compositions to walks on a covering graph whose structure is exploited to simplify asymptotic expressions. Specifica…
A connected digraph in which the in-degree of any vertex equals its out-degree is Eulerian, this baseline result is used as the basis of existence proofs for universal cycles (also known as generalized deBruijn cycles or U-cycles) of several combinatorial objects. We extend the body of known results by presenting new results on the existence of universal cycles of monotone, "augmented onto", and Lipschitz functions in addition to universal cycles of certain types of lattice paths and random walks.
Building an infinite square-free word by appending one letter at a time while simultaneously avoiding the creation of squares is most likely to fail. When the alphabet has two letters this approach is impossible. When the alphabet has three or more letters, one will most probably create a word in which the addition of any letter invariably creates a square. When one restricts the set of undesired squares to a finite one, this can be possible. We study the constraints on the alphabet and the set of squares which permit this approach to work.
Consider infinite random words over a finite alphabet where the letters occur as an i.i.d. sequence according to some arbitrary distribution on the alphabet. The expectation and the variance of the waiting time for the first completed $h$-run of any letter (i.e., first occurrence of $h$ subsequential equal letters) is computed. The expected waiting time for the completion of $h$-runs of $j$ arbitrary distinct letters is also given.
Letters $x$ and $y$ alternate in a word $w$ if after deleting in $w$ all letters but the copies of $x$ and $y$ we either obtain a word $xyxy\cdots$ (of even or odd length) or a word $yxyx\cdots$ (of even or odd length). A graph $G=(V,E)$ is word-representable if and only if there exists a word $w$ over the alphabet $V$ such that letters $x$ and $y$ alternate in $w$ if and only if $xy\in E$. It is known that a graph is word-representable if and only if it admits a certain orientation called semi-transitive orientation. Word-representable graphs generalize several important classes of graphs suc…
Covering arrays for words of length $t$ over a $d$ letter alphabet are $k \times n$ arrays with entries from the alphabet so that for each choice of $t$ columns, each of the $d^t$ $t$-letter words appears at least once among the rows of the selected columns. We study two schemes in which all words are not considered to be different. In the first case words are equivalent if they induce the same partition of a $t$ element set. In the second case, words of the same weight are equivalent. In both cases we produce logarithmic upper bounds on the minimum size $k=k(n)$ of a covering array. Definitiv…
We continue to investigate combinatorial properties of functions $f_m$ and $c_m$ considered in our previous papers. They depend on an initial arithmetic function $f_0$. In this paper, the values of $f_0$ are the binomial coefficients. We first consider the case when the values of $f_0$ are the binomial coefficients from a row of the Pascal triangle. The values of $f_0$ consider next are the binomial coefficients from a diagonal of the Pascal triangle. In two final cases, the values of $f_0$ are the central binomial coefficients and its adjacent neighbors. In each case, we derive an explicit fo…
Recently, Babson and Steingrimsson (see \cite{BS}) introduced generalized permutations patterns that allow the requirement that two adjacent letters in a pattern must be adjacent in the permutation. In this paper we study the generating functions for the number of permutations on $n$ letters avoiding a generalized pattern $ab\mn c$ where $(a,b,c)\in S_3$, and containing a prescribed number of occurrences of generalized pattern $cd\mn e$ where $(c,d,e)\in S_3$. As a consequence, we derive all the previously known results for this kind of problems, as well as many new results.
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…
Let $m\neq n$. An $m\times n\times p$ proper array is a three-dimensional array composed of directed cubes that obeys certain constraints. Because of these constraints, the $m\times n\times p$ proper arrays may be classified via a schema in which each $m\times n\times p$ proper array is associated with a particular $m\times n$ planar face. By representing each connencted component present in the $m\times n$ planar face with a distinct letter, and the position of each outward pointing connector by a circle, an $m\times n$ array of circled letters is formed. This $m\times n$ array of circled let…
Recently, Kitaev [Ki2] introduced partially ordered generalized patterns (POGPs) in the symmetric group, which further generalize the generalized permutation patterns introduced by Babson and Steingrímsson [BS]. A POGP p is a GP some of whose letters are incomparable. In this paper, we study the generating functions (g.f.) for the number of k-ary words avoiding some POGPs. We give analogues, extend and generalize several known results, as well as get some new results. In particular, we give the g.f. for the entire distribution of the maximum number of non-overlapping occurrences of a pattern p…
Enumeration problems related to words avoiding patterns as well as permutations that contain the pattern $123$ exactly once have been studied in great detail. However, the problem of enumerating words that contain the pattern $123$ exactly once is new and will be the focus of this paper. Previously, Doron Zeilberger provided a shortened version of Alexander Burstein's combinatorial proof of John Noonan's theorem that the number of permutations with exactly one $321$ pattern is equal to $\frac{3}{n} \binom{2n}{n+3}$. Surprisingly, a similar method can be directly adapted to words. We are able t…