On some generalizations of abelian power avoidability (Q496047)

Two words are \(k\)-abelian-equivalent if they contain the same number of occurrences of every factor of length at most \(k\). A special case of this relation, for \(k=1\), is the usual abelian equivalence expressing the fact that two words have the same Parikh vector, i.e., one can be obtained by permutation of symbols of the other. Equality of words can be seen as \(\infty \)-abelian equivalence. A \(k\)-abelian \(n\)-power is a concatenation of \(n\) pairwise \(k\)-abelian-equivalent words. A \(k\)-abelian power is avoidable over a \(q\)-symbol alphabet if there is an infinite word over an alphabet of size \(q\) not containing any non-empty factor being such power. So far, the least known value of \(k\), such that \(k\)-abelian cubes are avoidable over a binary alphabet, was \(k=3\). The present paper shows that \(k=2\), the minimum value possible, can be reached. It shows, as well, an analogous optimal result, \(k=3\), for avoidability of \(k\)-abelian squares over a ternary alphabet. Finally, the author deals with additive equivalence of words. Two words over an alphabet consisting of positive integers are additive-equivalent if the summation of their symbols results in the same value. Existence of infinite additive-cube-free words over a ternary alphabet is shown, thus decreasing the least known alphabet size by one.