On powers of words occurring in binary codings of rotations (Q1775724)

The question of the repetition of finite words occuring in an infinite sequence has been related to various fields, including the transcendence of real numbers, Diophantine approximation and quasicrystals. In this direction, it has been for instance proved that the real number \(\alpha\) having the Fibonacci sequence as continued fraction expansion is transcendental. Such a result is true for any Sturmian sequence, that is, for any coding of rotation of angle \(\alpha\) with respect to the partition \([0,1-\alpha[ \cup [1-\alpha,1[\). The key point is to prove that Sturmian sequences begins in arbitrary long squares. In this paper, the author investigates the generalization of these results to characteristic non-degenerate codings of rotations (of angle \(\alpha\) with respect to a partition \([0,\beta[\cup [\beta,1[\), such that \(\beta \not\in {\mathbb Z}+\alpha{\mathbb Z}\)). Sequences that contain only bounded powers of words are characterized. Contrary to Sturmian sequences, such codings of rotations can not begin with arbitrary long squares. This prevents one to generalize the proof of transcendence of numbers with Sturmian continued fraction expansions. However, when restricting to characteristic codings (that is, coding of the orbit of \(0\)) of non-periodic rotation or three interval exchanges transformation, the sequence always has non trivial asymptotic repetitions too far from the beginning, so that real numbers with such a sequence as a continued fraction expansion are transcendental.