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 the number of palindromes and C(n) is the number of factors of length n in u_β. We then give a complete description of the set of palindromes, its structure and properties.
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 $β$.
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 en…
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…
Let $w$ be an infinite word on an alphabet $A$. We denote by $(n_i)_{i \geq 1}$ the increasing sequence (assumed to be infinite) of all lengths of palindrome prefixes of $w$. In this text, we give an explicit construction of all words $w$ such that $n_{i+1} \leq 2 n_i + 1$ for any $i$, and study these words. Special examples include characteristic Sturmian words, and more generally standard episturmian words. As an application, we study the values taken by the quantity $\limsup n_{i+1}/n_i$, and prove that it is minimal (among all non-periodic words) for the Fibonacci word.
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 …
We study morphisms from certain classes and their action on episturmian words. The first class is $P_{ret}$. In general, a morphism of class $P_{ret}$ can map an infinite word having zero palindromic defect to a word having infinite palindromic defect. We show that the image of an episturmian word, which has zero palindromic defect, under a morphism of class $P_{ret}$ has always its palindromic defect finite. We also focus on letter-to-letter morphisms to binary alphabet: we show that images of ternary episturmian words under such morphisms have zero palindromic defect. These results contribut…
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.
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 $\sqrt{n}$.
The notion of palindromic length of a finite word, as well as an infinite word, was first introduced by Frid, Puzynina and Zamboni\cite{FRID2013737}. They conjectured that if the palindromic length of an infinite word is bounded, then this sequence is eventually periodic. In this article, we give a formal expression of the palindromic length of Thue-Morse sequence and find all sequences which have the same palindromic length as Thue-Morse's.
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 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.
Factor complexity $\mathcal{C}$ and palindromic complexity $\mathcal{P}$ of infinite words with language closed under reversal are known to be related by the inequality $\mathcal{P}(n) + \mathcal{P}(n+1) \leq 2 + \mathcal{C}(n+1)-\mathcal{C}(n)$ for any $n\in \mathbb{N}$\,. Word for which the equality is attained for any $n$ is usually called rich in palindromes. In this article we study words whose languages are invariant under a finite group $G$ of symmetries. For such words we prove a stronger version of the above inequality. We introduce notion of $G$-palindromic richness and give several …
A finite word $w$ of length $n$ contains at most $n+1$ distinct palindromic factors. If the bound $n+1$ is attained, the word $w$ is called rich. An infinite word $w$ is called rich if every finite factor of $w$ is rich. Let $w$ be a word (finite or infinite) over an alphabet with $q>1$ letters, let $F(w,n)$ be the set of factors of length $n$ of the word $w$, and let $F_p(w,n)\subseteq F(w,n)$ be the set of palindromic factors of length $n$ of the word $w$. We present several upper bounds for $| F(w,n)|$ and $| F_p(w,n)|$, where $w$ is a rich word. In particular we show that \[| F(w,n)| \leq …
Frid, Puzynina and Zamboni (2013) defined the palindromic length of a finite word $w$ as the minimal number of palindromes whose concatenation is equal to $w$. For an infinite word $u$ we study $PL_{u}$, that is, the function that assigns to each positive integer $n$, the maximal palindromic length of factors of length $n$ in $u$. Recently, Frid (2018) proved that $\limsup_{n\to\infty} PL_{u}(n)=+\infty$ for any Sturmian word $u$. We show that there is a constant $K>0$ such that $PL_{u}(n)\leq K\ln n$ for every Sturmian word $u$, and that for each non-decreasing function $f$ with property $\li…
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.
We introduce a variation of the Ziv-Lempel and Crochemore factorizations of words by requiring each factor to be a palindrome. We compute these factorizations for the Fibonacci word, and more generally, for all $m$-bonacci words.
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 regard a finite word $u=u_1u_2\cdots u_n$ up to word isomorphism as an equivalence relation on $\{1,2,\ldots, n\}$ where $i$ is equivalent to $j$ if and only if $x_i=x_j.$ Some finite words (in particular all binary words) are generated by "{\it palindromic}" relations of the form $k\sim j+i-k$ for some choice of $1\leq i\leq j\leq n$ and $k\in \{i,i+1,\ldots,j\}.$ That is to say, some finite words $u$ are uniquely determined up to word isomorphism by the position and length of some of its palindromic factors. In this paper we study the function $μ(u)$ defined as the least number of palindr…
A finite word $w$ is called \emph{rich} if it contains $\vert w\vert+1$ distinct palindromic factors including the empty word. For every finite rich word $w$ there are distinct nonempty palindromes $w_1, w_2,\dots,w_p$ such that $w=w_pw_{p-1}\cdots w_1$ and $w_i$ is the longest palindromic suffix of $w_pw_{p-1}\cdots w_i$, where $1\leq i\leq p$. This palindromic factorization is called \emph{UPS-factorization}. Let $luf(w)=p$ be \emph{the length of UPS-factorization} of $w$. In 2017, it was proved that there is a constant $c$ such that if $w$ is a finite rich word and $n=\vert w\vert$ then $lu…
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}.
The prefix palindromic length $p_{\mathbf{u}}(n)$ of an infinite word $\mathbf{u}$ is the minimal number of concatenated palindromes needed to express the prefix of length $n$ of $\mathbf{u}$. This function is surprisingly difficult to study; in particular, the conjecture that $p_{\mathbf{u}}(n)$ can be bounded only if $\mathbf{u}$ is ultimately periodic is open since 2013. A more recent conjecture concerns the prefix palindromic length of the period doubling word: it seems that it is not $2$-regular, and if it is true, this would give a rare if not unique example of a non-regular function of …
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.
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 prove that the generalized Thue-Morse word $\mathbf{t}_{b,m}$ defined for $b \geq 2$ and $m \geq 1$ as $\mathbf{t}_{b,m} = (s_b(n) \mod m)_{n=0}^{+\infty}$, where $s_b(n)$ denotes the sum of digits in the base-$b$ representation of the integer $n$, has its language closed under all elements of a group $D_m$ isomorphic to the dihedral group of order $2m$ consisting of morphisms and antimorphisms. Considering simultaneously antimorphisms $Θ\in D_m$, we show that $\mathbf{t}_{b,m}$ is saturated by $Θ$-palindromes up to the highest possible level. Using the terminology generalizing the notion o…
Generalized pseudostandard word $\bf u$, as introduced in 2006 by de Luca and De Luca, is given by a directive sequence of letters from an alphabet ${\cal A}$ and by a directive sequence of involutory antimorphisms acting on ${\cal A}^*$. Prefixes of $\bf u$ with increasing length are constructed using pseudopalindromic closure operator. We show that generalized Thue--Morse words ${\bf t}_{b,m}$, with $b, m \in \N$ and $b, m \geq 2$, are generalized pseudostandard words if and only if ${\bf t}_{b,m}$ is a periodic word or $b \leq m$. This extends the result of de Luca and De Luca obtained for …
We prove that the property of being closed (resp., palindromic, rich, privileged trapezoidal, balanced) is expressible in first-order logic for automatic (and some related) sequences. It therefore follows that the characteristic function of those n for which an automatic sequence x has a closed (resp., palindromic, privileged, rich, trape- zoidal, balanced) factor of length n is automatic. For privileged words this requires a new characterization of the privileged property. We compute the corresponding characteristic functions for various famous sequences, such as the Thue-Morse sequence, the …
This text is devoted to simultaneous approximation to $ξ$ and $ξ^2$ by rational numbers with the same denominator, where $ξ$ is a non-quadratic real number. We focus on an exponent $β_0(ξ)$ that measures the quality of such approximations (when they are exceptionally good). We prove that $β_0$ takes the same set of values as a combinatorial quantity that measures the abundance of palindrome prefixes in an infinite word $w$. This allows us to give a precise exposition of Roy's palindrome prefix method. The main tools we use are Davenport-Schmidt's sequence of minimal points and Roy's bracket op…
The prefix palindromic length $PPL_u(n)$ of an infinite word $u$ is the minimal number of concatenated palindromes needed to express the prefix of length $n$ of $u$. In a 2013 paper with Puzynina and Zamboni we stated the conjecture that $PPL_u(n)$ is unbounded for every infinite word $u$ which is not ultimately periodic. Up to now, the conjecture has been proven for almost all words, including all words avoiding some power $p$. However, even in that simple case the existing upper bound for the minimal number $n$ such that $PPL_u(n)>K$ is greater than any constant to the power $K$. Precise val…
In 1999 Lyngsø and Pedersen proposed a conjecture stating that every binary circular word of length $n$ with equal number of zeros and ones has an antipalindromic linear subsequence of length at least $\frac{2}{3}n$. No progress over a trivial $\frac{1}{2}n$ bound has been achieved since then. We suggest a palindromic counterpart to this conjecture and provide a non-trivial infinite series of circular words which prove the upper bound of $\frac{2}{3}n$ for both conjectures at the same time. The construction also works for words over an alphabet of size $k$ and gives rise to a generalization of…
The prefix palindromic length $\mathrm{PPL}_{\mathbf{u}}(n)$ of an infinite word $\mathbf{u}$ is the minimal number of concatenated palindromes needed to express the prefix of length $n$ of $\mathbf{u}$. Since 2013, it is still unknown if $\mathrm{PPL}_{\mathbf{u}}(n)$ is unbounded for every aperiodic infinite word $\mathbf{u}$, even though this has been proven for almost all aperiodic words. At the same time, the only well-known nontrivial infinite word for which the function $\mathrm{PPL}_{\mathbf{u}}(n)$ has been precisely computed is the Thue-Morse word $\mathbf{t}$. This word is $2$-autom…
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…
Given a nonempty finite word $v$, let $PL(v)$ be the palindromic length of $v$; it means the minimal number of palindromes whose concatenation is equal to $v$. Let $v^R$ denote the reversal of $v$. Given a finite or infinite word $y$, let $Fac(y)$ denote the set of all finite factors of $y$ and let $maxPL(y)=\max\{PL(t)\mid t\in Fac(y)\}$. Let $x$ be an infinite non-ultimately periodic word with $maxPL(x)=k<\infty$ and let $u\in Fac(x)$ be a primitive nonempty factor such that $u^5$ is recurrent in $x$. Let $Ψ(x,u)=\{t\in Fac(x)\mid u,u^R\not\in Fac(t)\}\mbox{.}$ We construct an infinite non-u…
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…
In this paper, we study combinatorial and structural properties of a new class of finite and infinite words that are 'rich' in palindromes in the utmost sense. A characteristic property of so-called "rich words" is that all complete returns to any palindromic factor are themselves palindromes. These words encompass the well-known episturmian words, originally introduced by the second author together with X. Droubay and G. Pirillo in 2001. Other examples of rich words have appeared in many different contexts. Here we present the first unified approach to the study of this intriguing family of w…
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…
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 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 $abaa$.
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.
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…
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…
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…
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…
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-…
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.
We prove that a random word of length $n$ over a $k$-ary fixed alphabet contains, on expectation, $Θ(\sqrt{n})$ distinct palindromic factors. We study this number of factors, $E(n,k)$, in detail, showing that the limit $\lim_{n\to\infty}E(n,k)/\sqrt{n}$ does not exist for any $k\ge2$, $\liminf_{n\to\infty}E(n,k)/\sqrt{n}=Θ(1)$, and $\limsup_{n\to\infty}E(n,k)/\sqrt{n}=Θ(\sqrt{k})$. Such a complicated behaviour stems from the asymmetry between the palindromes of even and odd length. We show that a similar, but much simpler, result on the expected number of squares in random words holds. We also…
First introduced in the study of the Sturmian words, the iterated palindromic closure was recently generalized to pseudopalindromes. This operator allows one to construct words with an infinity of pseudopalindromic prefixes, called pseudostandard words. We provide here several combinatorial properties of the fixed points under the iterated pseudopalindromic closure.
Any finite word $w$ of length $n$ contains at most $n+1$ distinct palindromic factors. If the bound $n+1$ is reached, the word $w$ is called rich. The number of rich words of length $n$ over an alphabet of cardinality $q$ is denoted $R_n(q)$. For binary alphabet, Rubinchik and Shur deduced that ${R_n(2)}\leq c 1.605^n $ for some constant $c$. We prove that $\lim\limits_{n\rightarrow \infty }\sqrt[n]{R_n(q)}=1$ for any $q$, i.e. $R_n(q)$ has a subexponential growth on any alphabet.
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…
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.
