A propos d'une conjecture de F. Dejean sur les répétitions dans les mots (Q792102)

In this paper we deal with unavoidable repetitions in words over a fixed alphabet. Let a t-repetition (for some rational t) be a word of the form \(u^ iv\) where v is a prefix of u and \(| u^ iv| =t.| u|\). We say that t-repetitions are unavoidable over X if arbitrarily long words over X contain a subword which is a t-repetition. Since the old work of \textit{A. Thue} [Norske Vid. Selsk. Skr. I, Mat.-Nat. Kl. Christiana 7, 1-22 (1906)] it is known that if \(| X| =2\), 2- repetitions are unavoidable but t-repetitions are avoidable for all \(t>2\). We say that 2 is the repetition threshold for 2 letter alphabets. Similarly, \textit{F. Dejean} has shown [J. Comb. Theory, Ser. A 13, 90-99 (1972; Zbl 0245.20052)] that 7/4 is the repetition threshold for 3 letter alphabets. In both cases, the proof relies on the construction of an infinite word by iterating morphism. We show that the threshold for \(| X| =4\) is 7/5, thereby solving a conjecture of Dejean. Moreover we use a more general way to construct an infinite word by first iterating a morphism and then applying a sequential machine to get a new infinite word. For \(| X| \geq 5\), the threshold is still unknown.