A note on intersections of free submonoids of a free monoid (Q760507)

Let S be a finite alphabet. The free monoid generated by S is denoted by \(S^*\). Let \(X=\{x,y\}\) for some \(x,y\in S^*\). X is periodic if \(X\subseteq p^*\) for some \(p\in S^*\). The main result of the paper says: Let \(X=\{x,y\}\) and \(U=\{u,v\}\) be nonperiodic subsets of \(S^*\). Then \(\{x,y\}^*\cap \{u,v\}^*\) has one of the following two forms: i) \(\{b,g\}^*\) for some (possibly empty) words b and g in \(S^*\), ii) \(b_ 0+b(g(1+d+...+d^ t))^*e)^*\) for some (possibly empty) words \(b_ 0\), b, g, and e in \(S^*\), and some integer \(t\geq 0\).