Factor complexity of \(S\)-adic words generated by the Arnoux-Rauzy-Poincaré algorithm (Q477772)

\(S\)-adic words are limit words of sequences of substitutions from a set \(S\). The authors are interested in substitutions whose incidence matrices are given by multidimensional continued fraction algorithms. In this way, a continued fraction algorithm produces an infinite word with prescribed letter frequencies. Arnoux-Rauzy words are given by the set of Arnoux-Rauzy substitutions; their factor complexity is \(2n+1\); however, the set of possible frequency vectors has Lebesgue measure zero. Therefore, the authors combine the Arnoux-Rauzy with the Poincaré algorithm. They prove that the factor complexity of the obtained Arnoux-Rauzy-Poincaré words is bounded by \(5n/2 +1\), with the first difference always being 2 or 3. Numerical experimentations indicate that the constant \(5/2\) is not best possible, in that the factor complexity is bounded eventually by \(2.2608 n\). If Arnoux-Rauzy and Poincaré substitutions are composed in an arbitrary way (and not according to the algorithm), then quadratic factor complexity is achievable.