Questions tagged [combinatorics-on-words]
A branch of combinatorics that focuses on the study of words and formal languages
104 questions
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Do runs of every length occur in this sequence?
This is a repost from user r.e.s's unsolved Math Stack Exchange question: Do runs of every length occur in this string? That question was derived from my original question on the subject: Does this ...
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The easily bored sequence
If we want to compare the repetitiveness of two finite words, it looks reasonable, first of all, to consider more repetitive the word repeating more times one of its factors, and secondarily to ...
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"Nyldon words": understanding a class of words factorizing the free monoid increasingly
BACKGROUND.
Let me first introduce some classical definitions, which appear, e.g., in §5 of Lothaire's Combinatorics on Words, in §5.1 of Reutenauer's Free Lie algebras, and in §6.1 of Victor Reiner'...
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partition of infinite word onto permitted words
Consider words over binary alphabet $\{0,1\}$. Let $M$ be a set of finite words such that $M$ contains at least $c\cdot 2^n$ words of length $n$ for all large enough $n$ (for a constant $c$, $0<c&...
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an operation on binary strings
Recently, as part of some joint research, Tom Roby was led to a curious operation on strings of L's and R's which he calls "bounce-reading": We start by reading the string at the left. When the ...
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Are there uncountably many cube-free infinite binary words?
In Cube-free infinite binary words it was established that there are infinitely many cube-free infinite binary words (see the earlier question for definitions of terms). The construction given in ...
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Avoidable words
Let $u(x_1,...,x_n)$ be a word, $k\in \mathbb{N}$. We say that $u$ is $k$-avoidable if there exists an infinite word in $k$ letters $\{a_1,...,a_k\}$ which does not contain values of $u$ (i.e. words ...
user6976
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Cube-free infinite binary words
A word $y$ is a subword of $w$ if there exist words $x$ and $z$ (possibly empty) such that $w=xyz$. Thus, $01$ is a subword of $0110$, but $00$ is not a subword of $0110$. I'm interested in right-...
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congruence on words: having the same (scattered) subwords of length at most n
For a fixed finite alphabet $A=\{a,b,...\}$, write $x \sim_n y$ if the two words $x$ and $y$ have the same (scattered) subwords of length at most $n$. The relation $\sim_n$ is a congruence of finite ...
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Subwords of the Fibonacci word
The Fibonacci word is the limit of the sequence of words starting with "$0$" and satisfying rules $0 \to 01, 1 \to 0$. It's equivalent to have initial conditions $S_0 = 0, S_1 = 01$ and ...
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Three-halves-free words (analogous to square-free)
A square-free word
is a string of symbols (a "word") that avoids the pattern $XX$, where $X$ is any
consecutive sequence of symbols in the string.
For alphabets of two symbols, the longest square-free ...
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What is the fairest order for stage-striking (and is it the Thue-Morse sequence)?
Here's a fair-sequencing problem that doesn't quite match the usual fair-division problems. I think that, like those, the answer should also be the Thue-Morse sequence ("balanced alternation"), ...
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Probability that a word in the free group becomes (much) shorter?
Let $w$ be a word of length $2\ell$ chosen at random on the alphabet $\{x_1,x_1^{-1},x_2,x_2^{-1},\dotsc,x_k,x_k^{-1}\}$. By the reduction $\rho(w)$ I mean what you obtain by deleting substrings of ...
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Question about combinatorics on words
Let $\{a_1,a_2,...,a_n\}$ be an alphabet and let $\{u_1,...,u_n\}$ be words in this alphabet, and $a_i\mapsto u_i$ be a substitution $\phi$.
Question: Is there an algorithm to check if for some $m,k$...
user6976
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Two questions from combinatorics on words
Question 1. Assume that an infinite word $u\in\{0,1\}^{\mathbb Z}$ is not balanced. Is it true that there exists a finite 0-1 word $w$ such that $0w01w1$ or $1w10w0$ is a factor of $u$? Is it true ...
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Combinatorics of palindromic decompositions
This is sort of a companion to my question Number of trivializations of a trivial word in the free group (which in turn is motivated by my earlier question here). It turns out that that question may ...
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Word complexity of primes mod 4
For an infinite binary word $w$, the word complexity $f_w(n)$ is defined as the number of different subwords of length $n$. The asymptotic behavior of this function is an important parameter of the ...
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String of integers puzzle
I apologize for not have the math background to put this question in a more formal way.
I'm looking to create a string of 796 letters (or integers) with certain properties.
Basically, the string is ...
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Number of trivializations of a trivial word in the free group
Let $M$ be the free monoid on $2n$ generators $x_1,X_1,...,x_n,X_n$ and consider the set $T$ of all those elements of $M$ which map to 1 of the free group on $x_1,...,x_n$ under the homomorphism $\pi$ ...
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Computing exact or asymptotics for number of strings over an alphabet of size $n$ that have no non-trivial substrings that appear more than once
I ran across a seemingly relatively simple combinatorics problem that appears open. For an alphabet of size $n$, let $A(n)$ be the number of strings over the alphabet that have no substring of length $...
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Is the set of cube-free binary sequences perfect?
This question is inspired by this one. In that thread, it's established that there are uncountably many cube-free infinite binary strings (where $x \in 2^{\omega}$ is cube-free iff $\forall \sigma \...
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Subwords of the infinite Fibonacci word
Let $W = 01001010010010 \ldots$ be the infinite Fibonacci word, A003849 in the OEIS. Let $B(m)$ be the set of $m+1$ subwords of $W$ that have length $m$, and for each such subword $u$, let $p(u)$ be ...
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"Bisecting" a free subgroup with respect to word length
My broad question is regarding the lengths of (reduced) words in a subgroup of a free group.
As motivation, consider the free group $Gp(S)$ where $|S|=n$, that is, a free group of rank $n$. Let $S=\{...
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Unique words in dihedral groups
Suppose $x$ is a word over the alphabet $\{0,1\}$.
Let $a$, $b$ be elements of the group Dih$_k$ for some $k$.
Let $\varphi=\varphi_{a,b,k}$ be the map from words over $\{0,1\}$ to elements of the ...
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Ubiquitous Zimin words
Let $w$ be a word in letters $x_1,...,x_n$. A value of $w$ is any word of the form $w(u_1,...,u_n)$ where $u_1,...,u_n$ are words. For example, $abaaba$ is a value of $x^2$. A word $u$ is called ...
user6976
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Elegant proof for $xy < yx \Leftrightarrow x^\mathbb{N} < y^\mathbb{N}$
Let $x, y$ be finite words over totally ordered alphabet and $<$ denote the lexicographical order, i.e for two not necessarily finite words we say $x < y$ iff one of the following holds
There ...
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Analogues of the Knuth and Forgotten equivalences on permutations: have they been studied?
Consider a totally ordered alphabet $A$ of $n$ letters. Let $W$ be the set of all words over $A$ which have no two letters equal. Then, for example, we can define the Knuth equivalence on $W$ as the ...
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Words and ranks
Let me state two problems that look very much alike. The first one can be solved putting together answers that different people have given to some questions I asked here a few weeks ago. The second ...
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A cubefree-preserving morphism from 5 to 2?
A word is cubefree if it cannot be written as $xyyyz$ where $y$ has positive length.
Let $h$ be the morphism from $\{0,1,2,3,4\}^*$ to $\{0,1\}^*$ given for words of length 1 as follows ($a\to h(a)$):...
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Is there a name for infinite words containing every finite words?
Apparently, the closest thing I've found would be normal number http://mathworld.wolfram.com/NormalNumber.html
But requiring that every finite words occurs is weaker than this property. So I'm ...
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Measuring the randomness of texts
The question concerns statistic properties of random words in a finite alphabet $A$.
By $A^{<\omega}$ we denote the set of all words in the alphabet $A$, i.e. finite sequences of elements of $A$.
...
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Über theorem on unavoidable patterns?
Let $A$ be an alphabet of $k$ symbols,
and $p$ a pattern.
An example of a pattern is $p=XX$, where $X$ is any finite
string of symbols from $A^+$.
Avoiding $p$ is avoiding any subword repeated twice ...
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Minimum number of permutations of $\{1,\ldots, n\}$ that together contain every $k$-subpermutation
Define a $k$-permutation of $\{1,\ldots, n\}$ to be a word $\tau_1 \ldots \tau_k$ such that $\{\tau_1,\ldots,\tau_k\}$ is a $k$-subset of $\{1,\ldots, n\}$. Thus an $n$-permutation of $\{1,\ldots, n\}$...
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Is the density of 1's in the Fibonacci word uniform?
The Fibonacci word is the limit of the sequence of words starting with $0$ and satisfying rules $0 \to 01, 1 \to 0$. Equivalently, it is obtained from the recursion $S_n= S_{n-1}S_{n-2}$ under ...
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Is there an efficient generalized algorithm to find at least one binary word with the maximum rotational imbalance and the full $\{0, 1\}$-balance?
Assuming that $x$ is a sequence of $l$ bits (i.e. a binary word of length $l$) and $0 \le m < l$, let $R(x, m)$ denote the result of the left bitwise rotation (i.e. the left circular shift) of $x$ ...
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Which criteria guarantee an orthogonal circuit in $\mathbb R^3$ to be rigid?
For $n\ge4$, define an orthogonal circuit or O-circuit as a closed circuit of $n$ unit segments in $\mathbb R^3$ such that any two neighboring segments form a right angle. (Physically this could be ...
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What is the max number of self-segregating words of length n?
A set of words S is called self-segregating if you don't need whitespaces to read them. It means that for any two words from S no new words from S arise between them.
For example the set ab, bc, ac, ...
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A Sauer-Shelah-like lermma for prefix tree
I proved a variant of the Sauer-Shelah lemma and I was wondering if something like that is already known.
Let $S \subseteq \{0,1\}^n $. We say that a set of coordinates $K \subseteq [n]$ is shattered ...
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Is there a prefix-continuous bijection between finite words and eventually zero words?
Let
$$ X = \{x \in \{0,1\}^{\omega} \;|\; \exists m: \forall i \geq m: x_i = 0\} $$
(one-way infinite eventually zero words). Let $\{0,1\}^*$ denote the finite (not necessarily nonempty) words over $\{...
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Uniqueness of "Limit" of Cyclic Binary Strings
Set-up: By abuse, let $\sigma$ represent both the left shift operator on infinite bi-infinite strings and the cyclic left shift operator on finite strings. (Thus, for example, $\sigma(...01\bar{0}10......
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Concatenation of strings [closed]
We have two strings (i. e., finite tuples) $A$ and $B$.
We have to find if for some positive integers $n$ and $m$, the string $A$ concatenated $n$ times equals the string $B$ concatenated $m$ times or ...
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Existence of an infinite word with a predetermined asymptotic for the word complexity
Let $w$ be an infinite binary word, for example: $$1010100001 0010011000 0001001110 0101011011 \dots$$
Let $N_w(k)$ be the set of distinct subwords of $w$ of length $k$, and $n_w(k)$ the cardinal of ...
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Ordering on words
What are the known computation-friendly well-orderings on words from $A^*$, where $A$ is a finite alphabet, except the standard weightlex and syllable-order?
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Number of Lyndon words of given weight
Consider the alphabet consisting of two letters $a$ and $b$, and put the lexicographic order in which $a<b$.
We say that a non-empty word $w$ in this alphabet is a Lyndon word if, for any non-...
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Algorithms to factorize words into product of powers
I came across this problem, which I guess is well known to combinatorialists of words, so I write here to see if someone can help me with some references.
Let $A$ be a finite set of symbols, are there ...
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Which automated theorem provers can address the combinatorics of periods in strings?
Five years ago, I made a conjecture on the number of correlation classes that are exhibited by pairs of words in an alphabet of a given size. I later speculated that the conjecture could be tackled ...
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In the Oldenburger-Kolakoski sequence, is #1s = #2s infinitely many times?
The Oldenburger-Kolakoski sequence, $OK$, is the unique sequence of $1$s and $2$s that starts with $1$ and is its own runlength sequence:
$$OK = (1,2,2,1,1,2,1,2,2,1,2,2,1,1,2,1,1,2,2,1,2,1,1,\ldots).$...
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Periodic strings
I wish to ask a problem in periodic strings, it might be well-known but I am a beginner in this subject, so I am very glad if someones can show me. My problem is that can we add some string to the end ...
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What prefix and factors determine a ultimately periodic word uniquely
Let $\xi$ be an ultimately periodic sequence, i.e. there exists finite sequences $p, q \in X^*$ such that $\xi = pq^{\omega}$. Does there exists a $n > 0$ such that the prefix of length $n$ and all ...
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Computability of the "free envelope rank" of an endomorphism of a free group
Let $F$ be a free group freely generated by the finite set $S$ and $\sigma\colon F\to F$ be a group morphism. We define the free envelope rank of $\sigma$, written $r(\sigma)$, as the smallest $k$ for ...
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