Words avoiding the morphic images of most of their factors

Abstract

We say that a finite factor $f$ of a word $w$ is \emph{imaged} if there exists a non-erasing morphism $m$, distinct from the identity, such that $w$ contains $m(f)$. We show that every infinite word contains an imaged factor of length at least 6 and that 6 is best possible. We show that every infinite binary word contains at least 36 distinct imaged factors and that 36 is best possible.