Avoiding abelian squares in partial words

Erd?s raised the question whether there exist infinite abelian square-free words over a given alphabet, that is, words in which no two adjacent subwords are permutations of each other. It can easily be checked that no such word exists over a three-letter alphabet. However, infinite abelian square-free words have been constructed over alphabets of sizes as small as four. In this paper, we investigate the problem of avoiding abelian squares in partial words, or sequences that may contain some holes. In particular, we give lower and upper bounds for the number of letters needed to construct infinite abelian square-free partial words with finitely or infinitely many holes. Several of our constructions are based on iterating morphisms. In the case of one hole, we prove that the minimal alphabet size is four, while in the case of more than one hole, we prove that it is five. We also investigate the number of partial words of length n with a fixed number of holes over a five-letter alphabet that avoid abelian squares and show that this number grows exponentially with n.     

Unbordered partial words

An unbordered word is a string over a finite alphabet such that none of its proper prefixes is one of its suffixes. In this paper, we extend the results on unbordered words to unbordered partial words. Partial words are strings that may have a number of “do not know” symbols. We extend a result of Ehrenfeucht and Silberger which states that if a word u can be written as a concatenation of nonempty prefixes of a word v, then u can be written as a unique concatenation of nonempty unbordered prefixes of v. We study the properties of the longest unbordered prefix of a partial word, investigate the relationship between the minimal weak period of a partial word and the maximal length of its unbordered factors, and also investigate some of the properties of an unbordered partial word and how they relate to its critical factorizations (if any).     

Abelian repetitions in partial words

We study abelian repetitions in partial words, or sequences that may contain some unknown positions or holes. First, we look at the avoidance of abelian pth powers in infinite partial words, where p>2, extending recent results regarding the case where p=2. We investigate, for a given p, the smallest alphabet size needed to construct an infinite partial word with finitely or infinitely many holes that avoids abelian pth powers. We construct in particular an infinite binary partial word with infinitely many holes that avoids 6th powers. Then we show, in a number of cases, that the number of abelian p-free partial words of length n with h holes over a given alphabet grows exponentially as n increases. Finally, we prove that we cannot avoid abelian pth powers under arbitrary insertion of holes in an infinite word.     

On minimal Sturmian partial words

Partial words, which are sequences that may have some undefined positions called holes, can be viewed as sequences over an extended alphabet A_?=A∪{?}, where ? stands for a hole and matches (or is compatible with) every letter in A. The subword complexity of a partial word w, denoted by p_w(n), is the number of distinct full words (those without holes) over the alphabet that are compatible with factors of length n of w. A function f:N→N is (k,h)-feasible if for each integer N≥1, there exists a k-ary partial word w with h holes such that p_w(n)=f(n) for all n such that 1≤n≤N. We show that when dealing with feasibility in the context of finite binary partial words, the only affine functions that need investigation are f(n)=n+1 and f(n)=2n. It turns out that both are (2,h)-feasible for all non-negative integers h. We classify all minimal partial words with h holes of order N with respect to f(n)=n+1, called Sturmian, computing their lengths as well as their numbers, except when h=0 in which case we describe an algorithm that generates all minimal Sturmian full words. We show that up to reversal and complement, any minimal Sturmian partial word with one hole is of the form aⁱ?a^jba^l, where i,j,l are integers satisfying some restrictions, that all minimal Sturmian partial words with two holes are one-periodic, and that up to complement, ?(a^N−1?)^h−1 is the only minimal Sturmian partial word with h≥3 holes. Finally, we give upper bounds on the lengths of minimal partial words with respect to f(n)=2n, showing them tight for h=0,1 or 2.     

Total palindrome complexity of finite words

The palindrome complexity function pal_w of a word w attaches to each n∈N the number of palindromes (factors equal to their mirror images) of length n contained in w. The number of all the nonempty palindromes in a finite word is called the total palindrome complexity of that word. We present exact bounds for the total palindrome complexity and construct words which have any palindrome complexity between these bounds, for binary alphabets as well as for alphabets with the cardinal greater than 2. Denoting by M_q(n) the average number of palindromes in all words of length n over an alphabet with q letters, we present an upper bound for M_q(n) and prove that the limit of M_q(n)/n is 0. A more elaborate estimation leads to .     

Periods in strings

In this paper we explore the notion of periods of a string. A period can be thought of as a shift that causes the string to match over itself. We obtain two sets of necessary and sufficient conditions for a set of integers to be the set of periods of some string (what we call the correlation of the string). We show that the number of distinct correlations of length n is independent of the alphabet size and is of order n^logn. By using generating function methods we enumerate the strings having a given correlation, and investigate certain related questions.     

The visibility parameter for words and permutations

We investigate the visibility parameter, i.e., the number of visible pairs, first for words over a finite alphabet, then for permutations of the finite set {1, 2, …, n}, and finally for words over an infinite alphabet whose letters occur with geometric probabilities. The results obtained for permutations correct the formula for the expectation obtained in a recent paper by Gutin et al. [Gutin G., Mansour T., Severini S., A characterization of horizontal visibility graphs and combinatorics on words, Phys. A, 2011, 390 (12), 2421–2428], and for words over a finite alphabet the formula obtained in the present paper for the expectation is more precise than that obtained in the cited paper. More importantly, we also compute the variance for each case.     

Testing primitivity on partial words

Primitive words, or strings over a finite alphabet that cannot be written as a power of another string, play an important role in numerous research areas including formal language theory, coding theory, and combinatorics on words. Testing whether or not a word is primitive can be done in linear time in the length of the word. Indeed, a word is primitive if and only if it is not an inside factor of its square. In this paper, we describe a linear time algorithm to test primitivity on partial words which are strings that may contain a number of “do not know” symbols. Our algorithm is based on the combinatorial result that under some condition, a partial word is primitive if and only if it is not compatible with an inside factor of its square. The concept of special, related to commutativity on partial words, is foundational in the design of our algorithm. A World Wide Web server interface at http://www.uncg.edu/mat/primitive/ has been established for automated use of the program.     

The standard factorization of Lyndon words: an average point of view

A non-empty word w is a Lyndon word if and only if it is strictly smaller for the lexicographical order than any of its proper suffixes. Such a word w is either a letter or admits a standard factorization uv where v is its smallest proper suffix. For any Lyndon word v, we show that the set of Lyndon words having v as right factor of the standard factorization is regular and compute explicitly the associated generating function. Next, considering the Lyndon words of length n over a two-letter alphabet, we establish that, for the uniform distribution, the average length of the right factor v of the standard factorization is asymptotically 3n/4.     

Revision of asymptotic behavior of the complexity of word assembly by concatenation circuits

The problem of complexity of word assembly is studied. The complexity of a word means the minimal number of concatenation operations sufficient to obtain this word in the basis of oneletter words over a finite alphabet A (repeated use of obtained words is permitted). Let LA(n) be the maximal complexity of words of length n over a finite alphabet A. In this paper we prove that Шn) = (l + (2 + ₀ ( 1 ) ).     

Number of holes in unavoidable sets of partial words II

We are concerned with the complexity of deciding the avoidability of sets of partial words over an arbitrary alphabet. Towards this, we investigate the minimum size of unavoidable sets of partial words with a fixed number of holes. Additionally, we analyze the complexity of variations on the decision problem when placing restrictions on the number of holes and length of the words.     

Enumerating words with forbidden factors

This presentation is an exposition of an application of the theory of recurrence relations to enumerating strings over an alphabet with a forbidden factor (consecutive substring). As an illustration we examine the case of binary strings with a forbidden factor of k consecutive symbols 1 for given k, using generating function techniques that deserve to be better known.This allows us to derive a known upper bound for the number of prefix normal binary words: words with the property that no factor has more occurrences of the symbol 1 than the prefix of the same length. Such words arise in the context of indexed binary jumbled pattern matching.     

Hamming distance for conjugates

Let x,y be strings of equal length. The Hamming distanceh(x,y) between x and y is the number of positions in which x and y differ. If x is a cyclic shift of y, we say x and y are conjugates. We consider f(x,y), the Hamming distance between the conjugates xy and yx. Over a binary alphabet f(x,y) is always even, and must satisfy a further technical condition. By contrast, over an alphabet of size 3 or greater, f(x,y) can take any value between 0 and |x|+|y|, except 1; furthermore, we can always assume that the smaller string has only one type of letter.     

Successions in Words and Compositions

We consider words over the alphabet [k] = {1, 2, . . . , k}, k ?? 2. For a fixed nonnegative integer p, a p-succession in a word w ₁ w ₂ . . . w _n consists of two consecutive letters of the form (w _i , w _i ?+ p), i = 1, 2, . . . , n ? 1. We analyze words with respect to a given number of contained p-successions. First we find the mean and variance of the number of p-successions. We then determine the distribution of the number of p-successions in words of length n as n (and possibly k) tends to infinity; a simple instance of a phase transition (Gaussian-Poisson-degenerate) is encountered. Finally, we also investigate successions in compositions of integers.     

Counting Simsun Permutations by Descents

We count in the present work simsun permutations of length n by their number of descents. Properties studied include the recurrence relation and real-rootedness of the generating function of the number of n-simsun permutations with k descents. By means of generating function arguments, we show that the descent number is equidistributed over n-simsun permutations and n-André permutations. We also compute the mean and variance of the random variable X _n taking values the descent number of random n-simsun permutations, and deduce that the distribution of descents over random simsun permutations of length n satisfies a central and a local limit theorem as n ?? +???.     

A note on certain de Bruijn sequences with forbidden subsequences

We consider words over a finite alphabet with certain uniqueness properties (a subsequence of length k does not occur more than once) and distance properties (at least j other symbols separate the occurrence of the same symbol). The maximal length of these words is realised by linear de Bruijn sequences with certain forbidden subsequences. We prove the existence of these maximal sequences.     

Expected length of the longest common subsequence for large alphabets

We consider the length L of the longest common subsequence of two randomly uniformly and independently chosen n character words over a k-ary alphabet. Subadditivity arguments yield that E[L]/n converges to a constant γ_k. We prove a conjecture of Sankoff and Mainville from the early 1980s claiming that as k→∞.     

The box parameter for words and permutations

The box parameter for words counts how often two letters w _j and w _k define a “box” such that all the letters w _j+1; ..., w _k?1 fall into that box. It is related to the visibility parameter and other parameters on words. Three models are considered: Words over a finite alphabet, permutations, and words with letters following a geometric distribution. A typical result is: The average box parameter for words over an M letter alphabet is asymptotically given by 2n ? 2 _n H _M /M, for fixed M and n → ∞.     

Locally Periodic Versus Globally Periodic Infinite Words

We call a one-way infinite word w over a finite alphabet (ρ,l)-repetitive if all long enough prefixes of w contain as a suffix a ρth power (or more generally a repetition of order ρ) of a word of length at most l. We show that each (2,4)-repetitive word is ultimately periodic, as well as that there exist continuum many, and hence also nonultimately periodic, (2,5)-repetitive words. Further, we characterize nonultimately periodic (2,5)-repetitive words both structurally and algebraically.     

New upper bounds for nonbinary codes based on the Terwilliger algebra and semidefinite programming

We give a new upper bound on the maximum size Aq(n,d) of a code of word length n and minimum Hamming distance at least d over the alphabet of q?3 letters. By block-diagonalizing the Terwilliger algebra of the nonbinary Hamming scheme, the bound can be calculated in time polynomial in n using semidefinite programming. For q=3,4,5 this gives several improved upper bounds for concrete values of n and d. This work builds upon previous results of Schrijver [A. Schrijver, New code upper bounds from the Terwilliger algebra and semidefinite programming, IEEE Trans. Inform. Theory 51 (2005) 2859-2866] on the Terwilliger algebra of the binary Hamming scheme.