No label defined (Q4939596)

Define the block-complexity of a sequence \(u= (u_{i,j})_{i,j\in \mathbb{Z}}\) with terms in a finite alphabet by \(p(m,n)= \# B_{m,n}\) where \(B_{m,n}\) is the set of rectangular blocks that occur in the sequence \(u\) and have size \(m\times n\). A conjecture of Nivat asserts that if there is an integer pair \((m_0, n_0)\) such that \(p(m_0,n_0)\leq m_0 n_0\), then the sequence \(u\) must admit a nonzero period vector. This conjecture is still open, although a weaker form has been proved recently [\textit{C. Epifanio, M. Koskas} and \textit{F. Mignosi}, On a conjecture on bidimensional words, Preprint, Palermo University, 78 (1999)](This should replace reference[4]). In the paper under review the author studies sequences with complexity \(p(m,n)= mn+1\), \(\forall m,n\). He first shows that these sequences cannot have a nonzero period vector. He then gives a complete characterization of these sequences (very roughly speaking, ``two trivial'' classes and one Sturmian-related sequence).