Box Progressions, Abelian Power-Free Morphisms and A Sieve Technique for the Template Method

Abstract

Given balls and boxes both enumerated by the positive integers, we consider a sequential allocation of the balls into the boxes. We fix $\ell \ge 2$. Proceeding in increasing order of box labels, assign to each box the next $r$ smallest balls for some $ 1\leq r\leq\ell$. Given an integer $k\ge 3$, is there a natural number $N$ such that in any placement of $N$ balls into boxes, there exist $k$ balls whose labels and box labels each form a $k$-term arithmetic progression? We address this question by identifying abelian power-free fixed points of morphisms over a binary alphabet. We present sufficient conditions under which a morphism is abelian $k$-power-free. Our conditions extend Dekking's result over a binary alphabet and offer a weaker, yet more effective alternative to Carpi's. Combining Dekking's result with the template method of Currie and Rampersad, we develop a sieve technique that significantly reduces the number of parents that must be examined to establish abelian power-freeness. We then identify a binary morphism that is abelian 16-power free (but not abelian $15$-power free) with an abelian 14-power free fixed point, demonstrating the strength of our technique in verifying abelian power-freeness. Furthermore, we give a binary morphism which is not abelian power-free, yet has an abelian $5$-power free fixed point. These results offer novel examples of morphisms whose fixed points exhibit stronger abelian power-freeness than the corresponding morphisms.