Some variations on Lyndon words

Abstract: In this paper we compare two finite words $u$ and $v$ by the lexicographical order of the infinite words $u^\omega$ and $v^\omega$. Informally, we say that we compare $u$ and $v$ by the infinite order. We show several properties of Lyndon words expressed using this infinite order. The innovative aspect of this approach is that it allows to take into account also non trivial conditions on the prefixes of a word, instead that only on the suffixes. In particular, we derive a result of Ufnarovskij [V. Ufnarovskij, "Combinatorial and asymptotic methods in algebra", 1995] that characterizes a Lyndon word as a word which is greater, with respect to the infinite order, than all its prefixes. Motivated by this result, we introduce the prefix standard permutation of a Lyndon word and the corresponding (left) Cartesian tree. We prove that the left Cartesian tree is equal to the left Lyndon tree, defined by the left standard factorization of Viennot [G. Viennot, "Alg`ebres de Lie libres et mono\"ides libres", 1978]. This result is dual with respect to a theorem of Hohlweg and Reutenauer [C. Hohlweg and C. Reutenauer, "Lyndon words, permutations and trees", 2003].