arXiv subjects

Rosalba Zizza

Publications and source records attributed to Rosalba Zizza.

8 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

The Inverse Lyndon Array: Definition, Properties, and Linear-Time Construction

The Lyndon array stores, at each position of a word, the length of the longest maximal Lyndon subword starting at that position, and plays an important role in combinatorics on words, for example in the construction of fundamental data structures such as the suffix array. In this paper, we introduce the Inverse Lyndon Array, the analogous structure for inverse Lyndon words, namely words that are lexicographically greater than all their proper suffixes. Unlike standard Lyndon words, inverse Lyndon words may have non-trivial borders, which introduces a genuine theoretical difficulty. We show that the inverse Lyndon array can be characterized in terms of the next greater suffix array together with a border-correction term, and prove that this correction coincides with a longest common extension (LCE) value. Building on this characterization, we adapt the nearest-suffix framework underlying Ellert's linear-time construction of the Lyndon array to the inverse setting, obtaining an O(n)-time algorithm for general ordered alphabets. Finally, we discuss implications for suffix comparison and report experiments on random, structured, and real datasets showing that the inverse construction exhibits the same practical linear-time behavior as the standard one.

cs.DS↗

arXiv2024

Unveiling the connection between the Lyndon factorization and the Canonical Inverse Lyndon factorization via a border property

The notion of Lyndon word and Lyndon factorization has shown to have unexpected applications in theory as well in developing novel algorithms on words. A counterpart to these notions are those of inverse Lyndon word and inverse Lyndon factorization. Differently from the Lyndon words, the inverse Lyndon words may be bordered. The relationship between the two factorizations is related to the inverse lexicographic ordering, and has only been recently explored. More precisely, a main open question is how to get an inverse Lyndon factorization from a classical Lyndon factorization under the inverse lexicographic ordering, named CFLin. In this paper we reveal a strong connection between these two factorizations where the border plays a relevant role. More precisely, we show two main results. We say that a factorization has the border property if a nonempty border of a factor cannot be a prefix of the next factor. First we show that there exists a unique inverse Lyndon factorization having the border property. Then we show that this unique factorization with the border property is the so-called canonical inverse Lyndon factorization, named ICFL. By showing that ICFL is obtained by compacting factors of the Lyndon factorization over the inverse lexicographic ordering, we provide a linear time algorithm for computing ICFL from CFLin.

cs.FL↗

arXiv2024

From the Lyndon factorization to the Canonical Inverse Lyndon factorization: back and forth

The notion of inverse Lyndon word is related to the classical notion of Lyndon word. More precisely, inverse Lyndon words are all and only the nonempty prefixes of the powers of the anti-Lyndon words, where an anti-Lyndon word with respect to a lexicographical order is a classical Lyndon word with respect to the inverse lexicographic order. Each word $w$ admits a factorization in inverse Lyndon words, named the canonical inverse Lyndon factorization $\ICFL(w)$, which maintains the main properties of the Lyndon factorization of $w$. Although there is a huge literature on the Lyndon factorization, the relation between the Lyndon factorization $\CFL_{in}$ with respect to the inverse order and the canonical inverse Lyndon factorization $\ICFL$ has not been thoroughly investigated. In this paper, we address this question and we show how to obtain one factorization from the other via the notion of grouping. This result naturally opens new insights in the investigation of the relationship between $\ICFL$ and other notions, e.g., variants of Burrows Wheeler Transform, as already done for the Lyndon factorization.

math.CO↗

arXiv2022

Numeric Lyndon-based feature embedding of sequencing reads for machine learning approaches

Feature embedding methods have been proposed in literature to represent sequences as numeric vectors to be used in some bioinformatics investigations, such as family classification and protein structure prediction. Recent theoretical results showed that the well-known Lyndon factorization preserves common factors in overlapping strings. Surprisingly, the fingerprint of a sequencing read, which is the sequence of lengths of consecutive factors in variants of the Lyndon factorization of the read, is effective in preserving sequence similarities, suggesting it as basis for the definition of novels representations of sequencing reads. We propose a novel feature embedding method for Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) data using the notion of fingerprint. We provide a theoretical and experimental framework to estimate the behaviour of fingerprints and of the $k$-mers extracted from it, called $k$-fingers, as possible feature embeddings for sequencing reads. As a case study to assess the effectiveness of such embeddings, we use fingerprints to represent RNA-Seq reads and to assign them to the most likely gene from which they were originated as fragments of transcripts of the gene. We provide an implementation of the proposed method in the tool lyn2vec, which produces Lyndon-based feature embeddings of sequencing reads.

q-bio.GN↗

arXiv2019

Lyndon words versus inverse Lyndon words: queries on suffixes and bordered words

Lyndon words have been largely investigated and showned to be a useful tool to prove interesting combinatorial properties of words. In this paper we state new properties of both Lyndon and inverse Lyndon factorizations of a word $w$, with the aim of exploring their use in some classical queries on $w$. The main property we prove is related to a classical query on words. We prove that there are relations between the length of the longest common extension (or longest common prefix) $lcp(x,y)$ of two different suffixes $x,y$ of a word $w$ and the maximum length $\mathcal{M}$ of two consecutive factors of the inverse Lyndon factorization of $w$. More precisely, $\mathcal{M}$ is an upper bound on the length of $lcp(x,y)$. This result is in some sense stronger than the compatibility property, proved by Mantaci, Restivo, Rosone and Sciortino for the Lyndon factorization and here for the inverse Lyndon factorization. Roughly, the compatibility property allows us to extend the mutual order between local suffixes of (inverse) Lyndon factors to the suffixes of the whole word. A main tool used in the proof of the above results is a property that we state for factors $m_i$ with nonempty borders in an inverse Lyndon factorization: a nonempty border of $m_i$ cannot be a prefix of the next factor $m_{i+1}$. The last property we prove shows that if two words share a common overlap, then their Lyndon factorizations can be used to capture the common overlap of the two words. The above results open to the study of new applications of Lyndon words and inverse Lyndon words in the field of string comparison.

cs.FL↗

arXiv2017

Inverse Lyndon words and Inverse Lyndon factorizations of words

Motivated by applications to string processing, we introduce variants of the Lyndon factorization called inverse Lyndon factorizations. Their factors, named inverse Lyndon words, are in a class that strictly contains anti-Lyndon words, that is Lyndon words with respect to the inverse lexicographic order. The Lyndon factorization of a nonempty word w is unique but w may have several inverse Lyndon factorizations. We prove that any nonempty word w admits a canonical inverse Lyndon factorization, named ICFL(w), that maintains the main properties of the Lyndon factorization of w: it can be computed in linear time, it is uniquely determined, it preserves a compatibility property for sorting suffixes. In particular, the compatibility property of ICFL(w) is a consequence of another result: any factor in ICFL(w) is a concatenation of consecutive factors of the Lyndon factorization of w with respect to the inverse lexicographic order.

cs.FL↗

arXiv2015

Splicing Systems from Past to Future: Old and New Challenges

A splicing system is a formal model of a recombinant behaviour of sets of double stranded DNA molecules when acted on by restriction enzymes and ligase. In this survey we will concentrate on a specific behaviour of a type of splicing systems, introduced by Păun and subsequently developed by many researchers in both linear and circular case of splicing definition. In particular, we will present recent results on this topic and how they stimulate new challenging investigations.

cs.FL↗

arXiv2009

Circular Languages Generated by Complete Splicing Systems and Pure Unitary Languages

Circular splicing systems are a formal model of a generative mechanism of circular words, inspired by a recombinant behaviour of circular DNA. Some unanswered questions are related to the computational power of such systems, and finding a characterization of the class of circular languages generated by circular splicing systems is still an open problem. In this paper we solve this problem for complete systems, which are special finite circular splicing systems. We show that a circular language L is generated by a complete system if and only if the set Lin(L) of all words corresponding to L is a pure unitary language generated by a set closed under the conjugacy relation. The class of pure unitary languages was introduced by A. Ehrenfeucht, D. Haussler, G. Rozenberg in 1983, as a subclass of the class of context-free languages, together with a characterization of regular pure unitary languages by means of a decidable property. As a direct consequence, we characterize (regular) circular languages generated by complete systems. We can also decide whether the language generated by a complete system is regular. Finally, we point out that complete systems have the same computational power as finite simple systems, an easy type of circular splicing system defined in the literature from the very beginning, when only one rule is allowed. From our results on complete systems, it follows that finite simple systems generate a class of context-free languages containing non-regular languages, showing the incorrectness of a longstanding result on simple systems.

cs.FL↗