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Morphic word

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Mathematics term
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In mathematics and computer science, a morphic word or substitutive word is an infinite sequence of symbols which is constructed from a particular class of endomorphism of a free monoid.

Every automatic sequence is morphic.

Definition

Let f be an endomorphism of the free monoid A on an alphabet A with the property that there is a letter a such that f(a) = as for a non-empty string s: we say that f is prolongable at a. The word

a s f ( s ) f ( f ( s ) ) f ( n ) ( s )   {\displaystyle asf(s)f(f(s))\cdots f^{(n)}(s)\cdots \ }

is a pure morphic or pure substitutive word. Note that it is the limit of the sequence a, f(a), f(f(a)), f(f(f(a))), ... It is clearly a fixed point of the endomorphism f: the unique such sequence beginning with the letter a. In general, a morphic word is the image of a pure morphic word under a coding, that is, a morphism that maps letter to letter.

If a morphic word is constructed as the fixed point of a prolongable k-uniform morphism on A then the word is k-automatic. The n-th term in such a sequence can be produced by a finite-state automaton reading the digits of n in base k.

Examples

  • The Thue–Morse sequence is generated over {0,1} by the 2-uniform endomorphism 0 → 01, 1 → 10.
  • The Fibonacci word is generated over {a,b} by the endomorphism aab, ba.
  • The tribonacci word is generated over {a,b,c} by the endomorphism aab, bac, ca.
  • The Rudin–Shapiro sequence is obtained from the fixed point of the 2-uniform morphism aab, bac, cdb, ddc followed by the coding a,b → 0, c,d → 1.
  • The regular paperfolding sequence is obtained from the fixed point of the 2-uniform morphism aab, bcb, cad, dcd followed by the coding a,b → 0, c,d → 1.

D0L system

A D0L system (deterministic context-free Lindenmayer system) is given by a word w of the free monoid A on an alphabet A together with a morphism σ prolongable at w. The system generates the infinite D0L word ω = limn→∞ σ(w). Purely morphic words are D0L words but not conversely. However, if ω = uν is an infinite D0L word with an initial segment u of length |u| ≥ |w|, then zν is a purely morphic word, where z is a letter not in A.

See also

References

  1. ^ Lothaire (2005) p.524
  2. Lothaire (2011) p. 10
  3. Honkala (2010) p.505
  4. ^ Lothaire (2011) p. 11
  5. ^ Lothaire (2005) p.525
  6. Lothaire (2005) p.526
  7. Honkala (2010) p.506

Further reading

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