On the number of monochromatic close pairs of beads in a rosary (Q807623)

For integers n, m, t consider cyclic strings of m ones and n-m zeros. Count the number of pairs of equal bits which are at most t places apart. The paper gives a tight lower bound for this number. When \(m=n/2\), the answer is \(\approx (\sqrt{2}-1)nt\).