Let B(n)denote the set of all binary strings of length n. A universal cyclefor a set Sis a cyclic sequence u1u2...u|S|where each substring of length ncorresponds to a unique object in S. When S =B(n), these sequences are commonly known as de Bruijn sequencessince they were proven to exist and counted by de Bruijn[5](also see[6]). These sequences were also independently discovered by Good[10]inthe same year. As an example, the cyclic sequence 0000100110101111 is a universal cycle (de Bruijn sequence) for B(4); the 16 unique substrings of length 4 when considered cyclicly are:
The lexicographically smallest universal cycle for binary strings with minimum specified weight