Search results for " closed word"
showing 3 items of 3 documents
Open and Closed Words
2017
Combinatorics on words aims at finding deep connections between properties of sequences. The resulting theoretical findings are often used in the design of efficient combinatorial algorithms for string processing, but may also have independent interest, especially in connection with other areas of discrete mathematics. The property we discuss here is, for a given finite word, that of being closed. A finite word is called closed if it has length ≤ 1 or it contains a proper factor (substring) that occurs both as a prefix and as a suffix but does not have internal occurrences. Otherwise the word is called open. We illustrate several aspects of open and closed words and factors, and propose som…
On the Number of Closed Factors in a Word
2015
A closed word (a.k.a. periodic-like word or complete first return) is a word whose longest border does not have internal occurrences, or, equivalently, whose longest repeated prefix is not right special. We investigate the structure of closed factors of words. We show that a word of length $n$ contains at least $n+1$ distinct closed factors, and characterize those words having exactly $n+1$ closed factors. Furthermore, we show that a word of length $n$ can contain $\Theta(n^{2})$ many distinct closed factors.
The sequence of open and closed prefixes of a Sturmian word
2017
A finite word is closed if it contains a factor that occurs both as a prefix and as a suffix but does not have internal occurrences, otherwise it is open. We are interested in the {\it oc-sequence} of a word, which is the binary sequence whose $n$-th element is $0$ if the prefix of length $n$ of the word is open, or $1$ if it is closed. We exhibit results showing that this sequence is deeply related to the combinatorial and periodic structure of a word. In the case of Sturmian words, we show that these are uniquely determined (up to renaming letters) by their oc-sequence. Moreover, we prove that the class of finite Sturmian words is a maximal element with this property in the class of binar…