Orbit-closure classification of square-free words in odd-difference progressions

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Let f=f0f1f2⋯{\bf f}=f_0f_1f_2\cdots be a paperfolding word over {1,4}\{1,4\}, and define v=v0v1v2⋯{\bf v}=v_0v_1v_2\cdots by

v4n=2,v4n+2=3,v2n+1=f2n+1v_{4n}=2,\qquad v_{4n+2}=3,\qquad v_{2n+1}=f_{2n+1}

for all n≥0n\geq 0, with the even-position symbols of f{\bf f} recoded as 22 and 33. The orbit closure of a word is the set of infinite words obtained as limits of shifts of that word. The orbit-closure classification conjecture. Every infinite word over a 4-letter alphabet that avoids squares in arithmetic progressions of odd difference belongs to the orbit closure of one of the words v{\bf v} constructed above. There are uncountably many such words v{\bf v} arising from paperfolding words, and the preceding theorem shows that they avoid squares in arithmetic progressions of odd difference; the conjecture asserts that these constructions account for all infinite examples, but no resolution is supplied in the source.

References

Primary source

Jui-Yi Kao, Narad Rampersad, Jeffrey Shallit and Manuel Silva, “Words avoiding repetitions in arithmetic progressions”, arXiv:math/0608607 (2006).

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