Chains and fixing blocks in irreducible binary sequences (Q2266018)

A fixing block in an irreducible word is a square, segment of the form XX, and the period is the length of X. An occurrence of a block C in an irreducible word, \(W=XCY\), is called a chain if XA having an infinite irreducible extension implies A is an initial segment of C. The length of such a chain is the length of C. It is shown that every fixing block has period equal \(2^ k\) or \(3(2^ k)\), and fixing blocks are produced having these periods. To each of these fixing blocks is associated a chain. The length of the chain which corresponds to the fixing block with period \(2^ k\) is \(3(2^{k-1})-1\), and the length of the chain which corresponds to the fixing block of length \(3(2^ k)\) is \(2^{k+2}-1\). Moreover, these chains occur in words which contain no square longer than the associated fixing block.