A Weak Structural Form of Commutative Equivalence in Finite Codes

TL;DR

This paper explores the relationship between prefix-free codes and symmetric trees, establishing a correspondence that preserves code structure and addresses a conjecture on commutative equivalence.

Contribution

It introduces a canonical correspondence between prefix-free codes and symmetric trees, advancing understanding of their structural relationships and related conjectures.

Findings

Established a correspondence preserving code lengths and structure

Proved existence of prefix-free codes matching sum properties for fixed lengths

Contributed to the commutative equivalence conjecture

Abstract

We investigate the structural relationship between prefix-free codes over the binary alphabet and a class of unlabeled rooted trees, which we call \emph{symmetric} trees. We establish a canonical correspondence between prefix-free codes and symmetric trees, preserving not only the lengths of codewords but also some additional commutative structure. Using this correspondence, we provide a result related to the commutative equivalence conjecture. We show that for every code, there exists a prefix-free code such that, for each fixed word length, the sums of powers of two determined by the occurrences of a distinguished symbol are equal.