The square-free word conjecture for sequences of ternary-or-larger alphabets

From papers

An alphabet is a finite set. Let (Ai)i1(\mathcal{A}_i)_{i\ge1} be a sequence of alphabets, and say that a word w=w1wnw=w_1\ldots w_n respects this sequence when wiAiw_i\in\mathcal{A}_i for every ii. A word is square-free if it contains no factor of the form uuuu for a nonempty word uu.

Square-free word conjecture. Given a sequence of alphabets (Ai)i1(\mathcal{A}_i)_{i\ge1} with Ai3|\mathcal{A}_i|\ge3 for all ii, there exists an infinite square-free word that respects (Ai)i1(\mathcal{A}_i)_{i\ge1}.

The source states this as a reformulation of the Thue list-number conjecture for the infinite path. It is presented as an open conjectural formulation, while the paper's main result concerns the analogous existence theorem for binary alphabets and cube-free words.

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Primary source

Vuong Bui and Matthieu Rosenfeld, “There exist infinite cube-free words over any sequence of binary alphabets”, arXiv:2512.03670 (2025).

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