A Multiset Version of Even-Odd Permutations Identity

In this paper, we present a multiset analogue of the even-odd permutations identity in the context of combinatorics of words. The multiset version is indeed equivalent to the coin arrangements lemma which is a key lemma in Sherman’s proof of Feynman’s conjecture about combinatorial solution of Ising model in statistical physics. Here, we give a bijective proof which is based on the standard factorization of a Lyndon word.

Counting Lyndon Factors

In this paper, we determine the maximum number of distinct Lyndon factors that a word of length $n$ can contain. We also derive formulas for the expected total number of Lyndon factors in a word of length $n$ on an alphabet of size $\sigma$, as well as the expected number of distinct Lyndon factors in such a word. The minimum number of distinct Lyndon factors in a word of length $n$ is $1$ and the minimum total number is $n$, with both bounds being achieved by $x^n$ where $x$ is a letter. A more interesting question to ask is what is the minimum number of distinct Lyndon factors in a Lyndon word of length $n$? In this direction, it is known (Saari, 2014) that a lower bound for the number of distinct Lyndon factors in a Lyndon word of length $n$ is $\lceil\log_{\phi}(n) + 1\rceil$, where $\phi$ denotes the golden ratio $(1 + \sqrt{5})/2$. Moreover, this lower bound is sharp when $n$ is a Fibonacci number and is attained by the so-called finite Fibonacci Lyndon words, which are precisely the Lyndon factors of the well-known infinite Fibonacci word $\boldsymbol{f}$ (a special example of an infinite Sturmian word). Saari (2014) conjectured that if $w$ is Lyndon word of length $n$, $n\ne 6$, containing the least number of distinct Lyndon factors over all Lyndon words of the same length, then $w$ is a Christoffel word (i.e., a Lyndon factor of an infinite Sturmian word). We give a counterexample to this conjecture. Furthermore, we generalise Saari's result on the number of distinct Lyndon factors of a Fibonacci Lyndon word by determining the number of distinct Lyndon factors of a given Christoffel word. We end with two open problems.

Generalizing the Classic Greedy and Necklace Constructions of de Bruijn Sequences and Universal Cycles

We present a class of languages that have an interesting property: For each language $\mathbf{L}$ in the class, both the classic greedy algorithm and the classic Lyndon word (or necklace) concatenation algorithm provide the lexicographically smallest universal cycle for $\mathbf{L}$. The languages consist of length $n$ strings over $\{1,2,\ldots ,k\}$ that are closed under rotation with their subset of necklaces also being closed under replacing any suffix of length $i$ by $i$ copies of $k$. Examples include all strings (in which case universal cycles are commonly known as de Bruijn sequences), strings that sum to at least $s$, strings with at most $d$ cyclic descents for a fixed $d>0$, strings with at most $d$ cyclic decrements for a fixed $d>0$, and strings avoiding a given period. Our class is also closed under both union and intersection, and our results generalize results of several previous papers.

Finely homogeneous computations in free Lie algebras

International audience We first give a fast algorithm to compute the maximal Lyndon word (with respect to lexicographic order) of \textitLy_α (A) for every given multidegree alpha in \textbfN^k. We then give an algorithm to compute all the words living in \textitLy_α (A) for any given α in \textbfN^k. The best known method for generating Lyndon words is that of Duval [1], which gives a way to go from every Lyndon word of length n to its successor (with respect to lexicographic order by length), in space and worst case time complexity O(n). Finally, we give a simple algorithm which uses Duval's method (the one above) to compute the next standard bracketing of a Lyndon word for lexicographic order by length. We can find an interesting application of this algorithm in control theory, where one wants to compute within the command Lie algebra of a dynamical system (letters are actually vector fields).

Lyndon Words, Free Algebras and Shuffles

A Lyndon word is a primitive word which is minimum in its conjugation class, for the lexicographical ordering. These words have been introduced by Lyndon in order to find bases of the quotients of the lower central series of a free group or, equivalently, bases of the free Lie algebra [2], [7]. They have also many combinatorial properties, with applications to semigroups, pi-rings and pattern-matching, see [1], [10].We study here the Poincaré-Birkhoff-Witt basis constructed on the Lyndon basis (PBWL basis). We give an algorithm to write each word in this basis: it reads the word from right to left, and the first encountered inversion is either bracketted, or straightened, and this process is iterated: the point is to show that each bracketting is a standard one: this we show by introducing a loop invariant (property (S)) of the algorithm. This algorithm has some analogy with the collecting process of P. Hall [5], but was never described for the Lyndon basis, as far we know.