Asymptotic behavior of some factorizations of random words

Abstract

In this paper we consider the normalized lengths of the factors of some factorizations of random words. First, for the \emph{Lyndon factorization} of finite random words with $n$ independent letters drawn from a finite or infinite totally ordered alphabet according to a general probability distribution, we prove that the limit law of the normalized lengths of the smallest Lyndon factors is a variant of the stickbreaking process. Convergence of the distribution of the lengths of the longest factors to a Poisson-Dirichlet distribution follows. Secondly we consider the \emph{standard factorization} of random \emph{Lyndon word} : we prove that the distribution of the normalized length of the standard right factor of a random $n$-letters long Lyndon word, derived from such an alphabet, converges, when $n$ is large, to: $$\mu (dx)=p_1{\delta }_1(dx)+(1-p_1)1_{[0,1)}(x)dx,$$ in which $p_1$ denotes the probability of the smallest letter of the alphabet.

Random Structures and Algorithms, Wiley, In press