License: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license (CC BY 3.0)
When quoting this document, please refer to the following
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.STACS.2017.19
URN: urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-70140
URL: http://dagstuhl.sunsite.rwth-aachen.de/volltexte/2017/7014/
Go to the corresponding LIPIcs Volume Portal

Carayol, Arnaud ; Göller, Stefan

On Long Words Avoiding Zimin Patterns

pdf-format:
LIPIcs-STACS-2017-19.pdf (0.5 MB)

Abstract

A pattern is encountered in a word if some infix of the word is the image of the pattern under some non-erasing morphism. A pattern p is unavoidable if, over every finite alphabet, every sufficiently long word encounters p. A theorem by Zimin and independently by Bean, Ehrenfeucht and McNulty states that a pattern over n distinct variables is unavoidable if, and only if, p itself is encountered in the n-th Zimin pattern. Given an alphabet size k, we study the minimal length f(n,k) such that every word of length f(n,k) encounters the n-th Zimin pattern. It is known that f is upper-bounded by a tower of exponentials. Our main result states that f(n,k) is lower-bounded by a tower of n-3 exponentials, even for k=2. To the best of our knowledge, this improves upon a previously best-known doubly-exponential lower bound. As a further result, we prove a doubly-exponential upper bound for encountering Zimin patterns in the abelian sense.

BibTeX - Entry

@InProceedings{carayol_et_al:LIPIcs:2017:7014,
  author =	{Arnaud Carayol and Stefan G{\"o}ller},
  title =	{{On Long Words Avoiding Zimin Patterns}},
  booktitle =	{34th Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2017)},
  pages =	{19:1--19:13},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-028-6},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2017},
  volume =	{66},
  editor =	{Heribert Vollmer and Brigitte Vallée},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl--Leibniz-Zentrum fuer Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{http://drops.dagstuhl.de/opus/volltexte/2017/7014},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-70140},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.STACS.2017.19},
  annote =	{Keywords: Unavoidable patterns, combinatorics on words, lower bounds}
}

Keywords: Unavoidable patterns, combinatorics on words, lower bounds
Collection: 34th Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2017)
Issue Date: 2017
Date of publication: 06.03.2017

DROPS-Home | Fulltext Search | Imprint | Privacy Published by LZI