Shuffle squares and ordered nest-free graphs

Fuente: arXiv
Salvato in:
Dettagli Bibliografici
Autori principali: Grytczuk, Jarosław, Pawlik, Bartłomiej, Ruciński, Andrzej
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2025
Soggetti:
Accesso online:
Tags: Aggiungi Tag
Nessun Tag, puoi essere il primo ad aggiungerne!!
_version_ 1866908680398569472
author Grytczuk, Jarosław
Pawlik, Bartłomiej
Ruciński, Andrzej
author_facet Grytczuk, Jarosław
Pawlik, Bartłomiej
Ruciński, Andrzej
contents A shuffle square is a word consisting of two shuffled copies of the same word. For instance, the Turkish word $\mathtt{\color{red}{ik}\color{blue}{i}\color{red}{li}\color{blue}{kli}}$ (binary in English) is a shuffle square, as it can be split into two copies of the word $\mathtt{ikli}$. We explore a representation of shuffle squares in terms of \emph{ordered nest-free graphs} and demonstrate the usefulness of this approach by applying it to several families of binary words. Among others, we characterize shuffle squares with four and five runs, as well as shuffle squares with all $\mathtt1$-runs of length one (and with the $\mathtt1$'s alternating between the two copies). In our main result we provide quite general sufficient conditions for a binary word not to be a shuffle square. In particular, it follows that binary words of the type $(\mathtt{1001})^n$, $n$ odd, are not shuffle squares. We complement it by showing that all other words whose every $\mathtt{1}$-run has length one or two, while every $\mathtt{0}$-run has length two, are shuffle squares. We also provide a counterexample to a believable stipulation that binary words of the form $\mathtt1^{m}\mathtt0^{m-2}\mathtt1^{m-4}\cdots$, $m$ odd, are far from being shuffle squares (the distance measured by the minimum number of letters one has to delete in order to turn a word into a shuffle square).
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2503_22043
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Shuffle squares and ordered nest-free graphs
Grytczuk, Jarosław
Pawlik, Bartłomiej
Ruciński, Andrzej
Combinatorics
68R15, 68R10
A shuffle square is a word consisting of two shuffled copies of the same word. For instance, the Turkish word $\mathtt{\color{red}{ik}\color{blue}{i}\color{red}{li}\color{blue}{kli}}$ (binary in English) is a shuffle square, as it can be split into two copies of the word $\mathtt{ikli}$. We explore a representation of shuffle squares in terms of \emph{ordered nest-free graphs} and demonstrate the usefulness of this approach by applying it to several families of binary words. Among others, we characterize shuffle squares with four and five runs, as well as shuffle squares with all $\mathtt1$-runs of length one (and with the $\mathtt1$'s alternating between the two copies). In our main result we provide quite general sufficient conditions for a binary word not to be a shuffle square. In particular, it follows that binary words of the type $(\mathtt{1001})^n$, $n$ odd, are not shuffle squares. We complement it by showing that all other words whose every $\mathtt{1}$-run has length one or two, while every $\mathtt{0}$-run has length two, are shuffle squares. We also provide a counterexample to a believable stipulation that binary words of the form $\mathtt1^{m}\mathtt0^{m-2}\mathtt1^{m-4}\cdots$, $m$ odd, are far from being shuffle squares (the distance measured by the minimum number of letters one has to delete in order to turn a word into a shuffle square).
title Shuffle squares and ordered nest-free graphs
topic Combinatorics
68R15, 68R10
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.22043