Title
Abelian Repetitions in Sturmian Words
Abstract
We investigate abelian repetitions in Sturmian words. We exploit a bijection between factors of Sturmian words and subintervals of the unitary segment that allows us to study the periods of abelian repetitions by using classical results of elementary Number Theory. We prove that in any Sturmian word the superior limit of the ratio between the maximal exponent of an abelian repetition of period $m$ and $m$ is a number $\geq\sqrt{5}$, and the equality holds for the Fibonacci infinite word. We further prove that the longest prefix of the Fibonacci infinite word that is an abelian repetition of period $F_j$, $j>1$, has length $F_j(F_{j+1}+F_{j-1} +1)-2$ if $j$ is even or $F_j(F_{j+1}+F_{j-1})-2$ if $j$ is odd. This allows us to give an exact formula for the smallest abelian periods of the Fibonacci finite words. More precisely, we prove that for $j\geq 3$, the Fibonacci word $f_j$ has abelian period equal to $F_n$, where $n = \lfloor{j/2}\rfloor$ if $j = 0, 1, 2\mod{4}$, or $n = 1 + \lfloor{j/2}\rfloor$ if $ j = 3\mod{4}$.
Year
DOI
Venue
2011
10.1007/978-3-642-38771-5_21
developments in language theory
DocType
Volume
ISSN
Journal
abs/1209.6013
LNCS 7907, pp. 227-238, 2013
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
4
0.45
19
Authors
6
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Gabriele Fici125230.13
Alessio Langiu2466.52
Thierry Lecroq366258.52
Arnaud Lefebvre416418.47
Filippo Mignosi556999.71
Elise Prieur-Gaston6376.02