On the number of frames in binary words

AbstractA frame is a square uu, where u is an unbordered word. Let F(n) denote the maximum number of distinct frames in a binary word of length n. We count this number for small values of n and show that F(n) is at most ⌊n/2⌋+8 for all n and greater than 7n/30−ϵ for any positive ϵ and infinitely many n. We also show that Fibonacci words, which are known to contain plenty of distinct squares, have only a few frames. Moreover, by modifying the Thue–Morse word, we prove that the minimum number of occurrences of frames in a word of length n is ⌈n/2⌉−2