A1 Journal article – refereed

Standard words and solutions of the word equation $X_1^2 \dotsm X_n^2 = (X_1 \dotsm X_n)^2$

List of Authors: Peltomäki Jarkko, Saarela Aleksi

Publisher: Elsevier

Publication year: 2021

Journal: Journal of Combinatorial Theory, Series A

Volume number: 178

eISSN: 1096-0899

Abstract

We consider solutions of the word equation $X_1^2 \dotsm X_n^2 = (X_1 \dotsm X_n)^2$ such that the squares $X_i^2$ are minimal squares found in optimal squareful infinite words. We apply a method developed by the second author for studying word equations and prove that there are exactly two families of solutions: reversed standard words and words obtained from reversed standard words by a simple substitution scheme. A particular and remarkable consequence is that a word $w$ is a standard word if and only if its reversal is a solution to the word equation and $\gcd(\abs{w}, \abs{w}_1) = 1$. This result can be interpreted as a yet another characterization for standard Sturmian words.

We apply our results to the symbolic square root map $\sqrt{\cdot}$ studied by the first author and M. Whiteland. We prove that if the language of a minimal subshift $\Omega$ contains infinitely many solutions to the word equation, then either $\Omega$ is Sturmian and $\sqrt{\cdot}$-invariant or $\Omega$ is a so-called SL-subshift and not $\sqrt{\cdot}$-invariant. This result is progress towards proving the conjecture that a minimal and $\sqrt{\cdot}$-invariant subshift is necessarily Sturmian.

Last updated on 2021-24-06 at 08:25