Initial nonrepetitive complexity of regular episturmian words and their Diophantine exponents

Abstract

<p>Regular episturmian words are episturmian words whose directive words have a regular and restricted form making them behave more like Sturmian words than general episturmian words. We present a method to evaluate the initial nonrepetitive complexity of regular episturmian words extending the work of Wojcik on Sturmian words. For this, we develop a theory of generalized Ostrowski numeration systems and show how to associate with each episturmian word a unique sequence of numbers written in this numeration system.</p><p><br>The description of the initial nonrepetitive complexity allows us to obtain novel results on the Diophantine exponents of regular episturmian words. We prove that the Diophantine exponent of a regular episturmian word is finite if and only if its directive word has bounded partial quotients. Moreover, we prove that the Diophantine exponent of a regular episturmian word is strictly greater than $2$ if the sequence of partial quotients is eventually at least $3$.</p><p><br>Given an infinite word $x$ over an integer alphabet, we may consider a real number $\xi_x$ having $x$ as a fractional part. The Diophantine exponent of $x$ is a lower bound for the irrationality exponent of $\xi_x$. Our results thus yield nontrivial lower bounds for the irrationality exponents of real numbers whose fractional parts are regular episturmian words. As a consequence, we identify a new uncountable class of transcendental numbers whose irrationality exponents are strictly greater than $2$. This class contains an uncountable subclass of Liouville numbers.</p>