Origins of Nonlinearity in Davenport-Schinzel Sequences

A generalized Davenport-Schinzel sequence is one over a finite alphabet that excludes subsequences isomorphic to a fixed forbidden subsequence. The fundamental problem in this area is bounding the maximum length of such sequences. Following Klazar, we let Expσ, nq be the maximum length of a sequence over an alphabet of size n excluding subsequences isomorphic to σ. It has been proved that for every σ, Expσ, nq is either linear or very close to linear. In particular it is Opn2 Op1q q, where α is the inverse-Ackermann function and Op1q depends on σ. In much the same way that the complete graphs K5 and K3,3 represent the minimal causes of nonplanarity, there must exist a set ΦNonlin of minimal nonlinear forbidden subsequences. Very little is known about the size or membership of ΦNonlin. In this paper we construct an infinite antichain of nonlinear forbidden subsequences which, we argue, strongly supports the conjecture that ΦNonlin is itself infinite. Perhaps the most novel contribution of this paper is a succinct, humanly readable code for expressing the structure of forbidden subsequences.