Pseudo-solutions of word equations (Q2304544)

In the context of word equations, the author studies conditions enforcing periodicity of the solutions. He then extends this study to the case of pseudo-repetitions, in which repetitions are considered up to an anticongruence, that is, a periodic solution is no longer a repetition of identical blocks, but rather a concatenation of blocks that are in relation to one another by an anticongruence. The rank of an equation is defined as the maximum of the sizes of the free bases of its solutions. Thus, periodicity forcing is nothing else than rank one. The main result of the paper is that the pseudo-rank of an equation is at most its rank. This is remarkable, as it shows that it is not necessary to look for ad-hoc results in the case of pseudo-periodic pseudo-solutions of word equations.