Last cases of Dejean's conjecture (Q544887)

A word \(w\) is said to be a fractional power if it can be written in the form \(x^e x'\), where \(e \geq 1\) and \(x'\) is a prefix of \(x\). In this case we say that \(w\) has exponent \(|w|/|x|\). An infinite word \(w\) avoids \(\alpha^+\)-powers if no factor (contiguous subword) of \(w\) has exponent \(>\alpha\). Define \(f(2) = 2\), \(f(3) = 7/4\), \(f(4) = 7/5\), and \(f(k) = k/(k-1)\) for \(k \geq 5\). \textit{F. Dejean} [``Sur un théorème de Thue'', J. Comb. Theory, Ser. A 13, 90--99 (1972; Zbl 0245.20052)] conjectured that there is an infinite word over a \(k\)-letter alphabet avoiding \(f(k)^+\) powers, and \(f(k)\) is optimal. Dejean's conjecture was already known for \(k = 2\), as it follows from fundamental results of Axel Thue. She proved it for \(k = 3\), and since 1972 Dejean's conjecture became one of the most important conjectures in combinatorics on words. It was later proven for \(k = 4\) by \textit{J.-J. Pansiot} [``A propos d'une conjecture de F. Dejean sur les répétitions dans les mots'', Discrete Appl. Math. 7, 297--311 (1984; Zbl 0536.68072)]; for \(5 \leq k \leq 11\) by \textit{J. Moulin Ollagnier} [``Proof of Dejean's conjecture for alphabets with 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11 letters'', ibid. 95, No. 2, 187--205 (1992; Zbl 0745.68085)]; for \(12 \leq k \leq 14\) by \textit{M. Mohammad-Noori} and \textit{J. Currie} [``Dejean's conjecture and Sturmian words'', Eur. J. Comb. 28, No. 3, 876--890 (2007; Zbl 1111.68096)]; for \(k \geq 33\) by \textit{A. Carpi} [``On Dejean's conjecture over large alphabets'', ibid. 385, No. 1--3, 137--151 (2007; Zbl 1124.68087)]; for \(k \geq 30\) and then \(k \geq 27\) by \textit{J. Currie} and \textit{N. Rampersad} [``Dejean's conjecture holds for \(n\geq 30\)'', ibid. 410, No. 30--32, 2885--2888 (2009; Zbl 1173.68050); ``Dejean's conjecture holds for \(n\geq 27\)'', Theor. Inform. Appl. 43, No. 4, 775--778 (2009; Zbl 1192.68497)]. Finally, the remaining cases of Dejean's conjecture were resolved by the paper under review and, independently, by \textit{J. Currie} and \textit{N. Rampersad} [``A proof of Dejean's conjecture'', Math. Comput. 80, No. 274, 1063--1070 (2011; Zbl 1215.68192)]. The idea in this paper is to start with the Thue-Morse sequence, apply a coding (found by computer search) for \(8 \leq k \leq 38\), and then use Pansiot's recoding [loc. cit.]. The author also resolves a stronger version of Dejean's conjecture proposed by \textit{P. Ochem} [``Letter frequency in infinite repetition-free words'', ibid. 380, No. 3, 388--392 (2007; Zbl 1115.68124)], for \(9 \leq k \leq 38\).