Combinatorial Algorithms on Words refers to the collection of manipulations of strings of symbols (words) - not necessarily from a finite alphabet - that exploit the combinatorial properties of the logical/physical input arrangement to achieve efficient computational performances. The model of computation may be any of the established serial paradigms (e.g. RAM's, Turing Machines), or one of the emerging parallel models (e.g. PRAM ,WRAM, Systolic Arrays, CCC). This book focuses on some of the accomplishments of recent years in such disparate areas as pattern matching, data compression, free groups, coding theory, parallel and VLSI computation, and symbolic dynamics; these share a common flavor, yet ltave not been examined together in the past. In addition to being theoretically interest ing, these studies have had significant applications. It happens that these works have all too frequently been carried out in isolation, with contributions addressing similar issues scattered throughout a rather diverse body of literature. We felt that it would be advantageous to both current and future researchers to collect this work in a sin gle reference. It should be clear that the book's emphasis is on aspects of combinatorics and com plexity rather than logic, foundations, and decidability. In view of the large body of research and the degree of unity already achieved by studies in the theory of auto mata and formal languages, we have allocated very little space to them.

The discrete mathematics and theoretical computer science communities have recently witnessed explosive growth in the area of algorithmic combinatorics on words. The next generation of research on combinatorics of partial words promises to have a substantial impact on molecular biology, nanotechnology, data communication, and DNA computing. Delving

Combinatorics on words, or finite sequences, is a field which grew simultaneously within disparate branches of mathematics such as group theory and probability. It has grown into an independent theory finding substantial applications in computer science automata theory and liguistics. This volume is the first to present a thorough treatment of this theory. All of the main results and techniques are covered. The presentation is accessible to undergraduate and graduate level students in mathematics and computer science as well as to specialists in all branches of applied mathematics.

Publisher Description

This textbook thoroughly outlines combinatorial algorithms for generation, enumeration, and search. Topics include backtracking and heuristic search methods applied to various combinatorial structures, such as: Combinations Permutations Graphs Designs Many classical areas are covered as well as new research topics not included in most existing texts, such as: Group algorithms Graph isomorphism Hill-climbing Heuristic search algorithms This work serves as an exceptional textbook for a modern course in combinatorial algorithms, providing a unified and focused collection of recent topics of interest in the area. The authors, synthesizing material that can only be found scattered through many different sources, introduce the most important combinatorial algorithmic techniques - thus creating an accessible, comprehensive text that students of mathematics, electrical engineering, and computer science can understand without needing a prior course on combinatorics.

This book constitutes the thoroughly referred post-workshop proceedings of the 22nd International Workshop on Combinatorial Algorithms, IWOCA 2011, held in Vancouver, BC, Canada, in July 2011. The 30 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from a total of 71 submissions. A broad variety of topics in combinatorics and graph theory are addressed, such as combinatorics on words, string algorithms, codes, Venn diagrams, set partitions; Hamiltonian & Eulerian properties, graph drawing, colouring, dominating sets, spanning trees, and others.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Combinatorics on Words, WORDS 2013, held in Turku, Finland, in September 2013 under the auspices of the EATCS. The 20 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 43 initial submissions. The central topic of the conference is combinatorics on words (i.e. the study of finite and infinite sequence of symbols) from varying points of view, including their combinatorial, algebraic and algorithmic aspects, as well as their applications.