We investigate automatic presentations of ω-words. Starting points of our study are the works of Rigo and Maes, Caucal, and Carton and Thomas concerning lexicographic presentation, MSO-interpretability in algebraic trees, and the decidability of the MSO theory of morphic words. Refining their techniques we observe that the lexicographic presentation of a (morphic) word is in a certain sense canonical. We then generalize our techniques to a hierarchy of classes of ω-words enjoying the above mentioned definability and decidability properties. We introduce k-lexicographic presentations, and morphisms of level k stacks and show that these are inter-translatable, thus giving rise to the same classes of k-lexicographic or level k morphic words. We prove that these presentations are also canonical, which implies decidability of the MSO theory of every k-lexicographic word as well as closure of these classes under MSO-definable recolorings, e.g. closure under deterministic sequential mappings. The classes of k-lexicographic words are shown to constitute an infinite hierarchy.

The complexity of infinite words is considered from the point of view of a transformation with a Mealy machine that is the simplest model of a finite automaton transducer. We are mostly interested in algebraic properties of the underlying partially ordered set. Results considered with the existence of supremum, infimum, antichains, chains and density aspects are investigated.

The necessary and sufficient conditions are extracted for periodicity of bi-ideals. They cover infinitely and finitely generated bi-ideals.

We prove two cases of a strong version of Dejean's conjecture involving extremal letter frequencies. The results are that there exist an infinite $\left({\frac{5}{4}^+}\right)$-free word over a 5 letter alphabet with letter frequency $\frac{1}{6}$ and an infinite $\left({\frac{6}{5}^+}\right)$-free word over a 6 letter alphabet with letter frequency $\frac{1}{5}$.

It is studied how taking the inverse image by a sliding block code affects the syntactic semigroup of a sofic subshift. The main tool are ζ-semigroups, considered as recognition structures for sofic subshifts. A new algebraic invariant is obtained for weak equivalence of sofic subshifts, by determining which classes of sofic subshifts naturally defined by pseudovarieties of finite semigroups are closed under weak equivalence. Among such classes are the classes of almost finite type subshifts and aperiodic subshifts. The algebraic invariant is compared with other robust conjugacy invariants.

We investigate the intersection of two finitely generated submonoids of the free monoid on a finite alphabet. To this purpose, we consider automata that recognize such submonoids and we study the product automata recognizing their intersection. By using automata methods we obtain a new proof of a result of Karhumäki on the characterization of the intersection of two submonoids of rank two, in the case of prefix (or suffix) generators. In a more general setting, for an arbitrary number of generators, we prove that if H and K are two finitely generated submonoids generated by prefix sets such that the product automaton associated to $H \cap K$ has a given special property then $\widetilde{rk}(H \cap K) \leq \widetilde{rk}(H) \widetilde{rk}(K)$ where $\widetilde{rk}(L)=\max(0,rk(L)-1)$ for any submonoid L.

A set T ⊆ L is a Parikh test set of L if c(T) is a test set of c(L). We give a characterization of Parikh test sets for arbitrary language in terms of its Parikh basis, and the coincidence graph of letters.

A compatibility relation on letters induces a reflexive and symmetric relation on words of equal length. We consider these word relations with respect to the theory of variable length codes and free monoids. We define an (R,S)-code and an (R,S)-free monoid for arbitrary word relations R and S. Modified Sardinas-Patterson algorithm is presented for testing whether finite sets of words are (R,S)-codes. Coding capabilities of relational codes are measured algorithmically by finding minimal and maximal relations. We generalize the stability criterion of Schützenberger and Tilson's closure result for (R,S)-free monoids. The (R,S)-free hull of a set of words is introduced and we show how it can be computed. We prove a defect theorem for (R,S)-free hulls. In addition, a defect theorem of partial words is proved as a corollary.

We show that the termination of Mohri's algorithm is decidable for polynomially ambiguous weighted finite automata over the tropical semiring which gives a partial answer to a question by Mohri [29]. The proof relies on an improvement of the notion of the twins property and a Burnside type characterization for the finiteness of the set of states produced by Mohri's algorithm.

A language L ⊆A* is literally idempotent in case that ua2v ∈ L if and only if uav ∈ L, for each u,v ∈ A*, a ∈ A. Varieties of literally idempotent languages result naturally by taking all literally idempotent languages in a classical (positive) variety or by considering a certain closure operator on classes of languages. We initiate the systematic study of such varieties. Various classes of literally idempotent languages can be characterized using syntactic methods. A starting example is the class of all finite unions of $B^*_1 B^*_2\dots B^*_k$ where B1,...,Bk are subsets of a given alphabet A.

In this article, we study the complexity of drunken man infinite words. We show that these infinite words, generated by a deterministic and complete countable automaton, or equivalently generated by a substitution over a countable alphabet of constant length, have complexity functions equivalent to n(log2n)2 when n goes to infinity.


In formal language theory, many families of languages are defined using either grammars or finite acceptors. For instance, context-sensitive languages are the languages generated by growing grammars, or equivalently those accepted by Turing machines whose work tape's size is proportional to that of their input. A few years ago, a new characterisation of context-sensitive languages as the sets of traces, or path labels, of rational graphs (infinite graphs defined by sets of finite-state transducers) was established. We investigate a similar characterisation in the more general framework of graphs defined by term transducers. In particular, we show that the languages of term-automatic graphs between regular sets of vertices coincide with the languages accepted by alternating linearly bounded Turing machines.
As a technical tool, we also introduce an arborescent variant of tiling systems, which provides yet another characterisation of these languages.

We introduce natural generalizations of two well-known dynamical systems, the Sand Piles Model and the Brylawski's model. We describe their order structure, their reachable configuration's characterization, their fixed points and their maximal and minimal length's chains. Finally, we present an induced model generating the set of unimodal sequences which amongst other corollaries, implies that this set is equipped with a lattice structure.

Right (left, two-sided) extendable part of a language consists of all words having infinitely many right (resp. left, two-sided) extensions within the language. We prove that for an arbitrary factorial language each of these parts has the same growth rate of complexity as the language itself. On the other hand, we exhibit a factorial language which grows superpolynomially, while its two-sided extendable part grows only linearly.