Every nonnegative real number is an abelian critical exponent (Q2333048)

Two finite words are abelian equivalent if they contain the same number of occurrences of each letter. An abelian power of exponent \(e\) and period \(m\) is a concatenation of \(e\) abelian equivalent \(m\)-letter words. The abelian critical exponent of an infinite word \(w\) is the \(\limsup\) as \(m \to \infty\) of the highest exponent of a period-\(m\) abelian power occurring as a factor of \(w\), divided by \(m\). It was proved by \textit{G. Fici} et al. [Theor. Comput. Sci. 635, 16--34 (2016; Zbl 1346.68150)] that the set of abelian critical exponents of Sturmian words is equal to the Lagrange spectrum. Here, the authors show that the remaining nonnegative real numbers are abelian critical exponents of words on a three-letter alphabet. Similar results hold for \(k\)-abelian equivalence, which means that two words contain the same number of occurrences of all words of length at most \(k\). It is an open question whether all real numbers are (\(k\)-)abelian critical exponents of binary words. This was proved by the authors for \(k=\infty\) in [Acta Arith. 194, No. 2, 135--154 (2020; Zbl 1467.68150)]; note that \(\infty\)-abelian equivalence is the usual equality of words but the \(\infty\)-abelian critical exponent defined as above differs from the usual critical exponent. For the entire collection see [Zbl 1419.68014].