Sturmian images of non Sturmian words and standard morphisms (Q1698732)

Sturmian sequences, which can be defined as codings of irrational rotations on the unit circle, and morphic sequences, which are obtained by taking the pointwise image of iterative fixed points of morphims of the free monoid, are two families of ``simple'' sequences, in the sense that they are somehow ``close'' (in distinct ways) to periodic sequences. It is thus tempting to search for sequences that are both Sturmian and morphic. There are quite a few papers on this subject (see, e.g., the reviews of the papers [\textit{L. Peng} and \textit{B. Tan}, Discrete Math. Theor. Comput. Sci. 13, No. 2, 63--68 (2011; Zbl 1283.68276); \textit{V. Berthé} et al., Theor. Inform. Appl. 41, No. 3, 329--349 (2007; Zbl 1140.11014)] and the references therein). The author of the paper under review revisits the subject by proving interesting new results, among which we point out the following somewhat unexpected statements: -- If the image of an infinite binary sequence by a morphism from the free monoid on two letters to itself is Sturmian, then the morphism is Sturmian (the previously known result needed the assumption that the initial sequence was itself Sturmian). Furthermore the initial sequence must be the concatenation of some letter to some power and of a Sturmian sequence. -- If a Sturmian sequence is the image of the iterative fixed point of some morphism defined on the free monoid on two letters, then the two involved morphisms must be Sturmian. Several other results are proved in the paper, including a characterization of morphisms that send non-Sturmian sequences to Sturmian sequences.