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

Comprehensive 2002 introduction to combinatorics on words for mathematicians and theoretical computer scientists.

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

A One-Stop Source of Known Results, a Bibliography of Papers on the Subject, and Novel Research Directions Focusing on a very active area of research in the last decade, Combinatorics of Compositions and Words provides an introduction to the methods used in the combinatorics of pattern avoidance and pattern enumeration in compositions and words. It

Internationally recognised researchers look at developing trends in combinatorics with applications in the study of words and in symbolic dynamics. They explain the important concepts, providing a clear exposition of some recent results, and emphasise the emerging connections between these different fields. Topics include combinatorics on words, pattern avoidance, graph theory, tilings and theory of computation, multidimensional subshifts, discrete dynamical systems, ergodic theory, numeration systems, dynamical arithmetics, automata theory and synchronised words, analytic combinatorics, continued fractions and probabilistic models. Each topic is presented in a way that links it to the main themes, but then they are also extended to repetitions in words, similarity relations, cellular automata, friezes and Dynkin diagrams. The book will appeal to graduate students, research mathematicians and computer scientists working in combinatorics, theory of computation, number theory, symbolic dynamics, tilings and stringology. It will also interest biologists using text algorithms.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Combinatorics on Words, WORDS 2019, held in Loughborough, UK, in September 2019. The 21 revised full papers presented in this book together with 5 invited talks were carefully reviewed and selected from 34 submissions. WORDS is the main conference series devoted to the mathematical theory of words. In particular, the combinatorial, algebraic and algorithmic aspects of words are emphasized. Motivations may also come from other domains such as theoretical computer science, bioinformatics, digital geometry, symbolic dynamics, numeration systems, text processing, number theory, etc.