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23 votes
5 answers
1k views

Sequences with integral means

Let $S(n)$ be the sequence whose first element is $n$, and from then onward, the next element is the smallest natural number ${\ge}1$ that ensures that the mean of all the numbers in the sequence is ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
7 votes
2 answers
428 views

Limit associated with complementary sequences

Define $A=(a_n)$ and $B=(b_n)$ as follows: $a_0=1$, $a_1=2$, $b_0=3$, $b_1=4$, and $$a_n=a_0b_{n-1}+a_1b_{n-2}$$ for $n \geq 2$, where $A$ and $B$ are increasing and every positive integer occurs ...
Clark Kimberling's user avatar
35 votes
0 answers
1k views

Is there any positive integer sequence $c_{n+1}=\frac{c_n(c_n+n+d)}n$?

In a recent answer Max Alekseyev provided two recurrences of the form mentioned in the title which stay integer for a long time. However, they eventually fail. QUESTION Is there any (added: ...
Ilya Bogdanov's user avatar
24 votes
0 answers
1k views

Is A276175 integer-only?

The terms of the sequence A276123, defined by $a_0=a_1=a_2=1$ and $$a_n=\dfrac{(a_{n-1}+1)(a_{n-2}+1)}{a_{n-3}}\;,$$ are all integers (it's easy to prove that for all $n\geq2$, $a_n=\frac{9-3(-1)^n}{2}...
uvdose's user avatar
  • 655
19 votes
1 answer
1k views

Is OEIS A007018 really a subsequence of squarefree numbers?

A comment in A007018 a(n) = a(n-1)^2 + a(n-1), a(0)=1 claims Subsequence of squarefree numbers (A005117). - Reinhard Zumkeller, Nov 15 2004 Is that really so? As far as I know, it is an open ...
joro's user avatar
  • 25.4k
11 votes
1 answer
864 views

Up to $10^6$: $\sigma(8n+1) \mod 4 = OEIS A001935(n) \mod 4$ (Number of partitions with no even part repeated )

Up to $10^6$: $\sigma(8n+1) \mod 4 = OEIS A001935(n) \mod 4$ A001935 Number of partitions with no even part repeated Is this true in general? It would mean relation between restricted partitions ...
joro's user avatar
  • 25.4k
8 votes
0 answers
1k views

Is the Collatz conjecture known to be true for interesting unbounded classes of numbers?

The Collatz or the $3n+1$ conjecture is open. Is there a specific polynomial $f(x)\in\mathbb Z[x]$ whose range is unbounded for which every integer of form $|f(m)|$ at $m\in\mathbb Z$ satisfies $3n+1$...
Turbo's user avatar
  • 13.9k
4 votes
2 answers
593 views

Squares in Lucas sequences

Good night, everyone! According to a celebrated result by J. H. Cohn, the only perfect squares in the Fibonacci sequence are $F_{0}=0$, $F_{1}=F_{2}=1$, and $F_{12}=144$. It is also known that the ...
Jamai-Con's user avatar
4 votes
2 answers
2k views

Which $n$ maximize $G(n)=\frac{\sigma(n)}{n \log \log n}$?

By Robin's theorem $$G(n)=\frac{\sigma(n)}{n \log \log n}$$ is bounded by $e^\gamma \approx 1.78107241799$ for $n>5040$ assuming Riemann hypothesis . For $n=\mathrm {lcm} (1,2 \dots k)$, $G(n)$ ...
joro's user avatar
  • 25.4k
3 votes
1 answer
308 views

Tangent numbers, secant numbers and permanent of matrices

Inspired by Question 402572, I consider the permanent of matrices $$f(n)=\mathrm{per}(A)=\mathrm{per}\left[\operatorname{sgn} \left(\sin\pi\frac{j+2k}{n+1} \right)\right]_{1\le j,k\le n},$$ where $n$ ...
Deyi Chen's user avatar
  • 884
2 votes
1 answer
172 views

Permutation and its binary analog

Let $f(n)$ be A000045(n), i.e., Fibonacci numbers: $f(n)=f(n-1)+f(n-2)$ for $n>1$ with $f(0)=0$ and $f(1)=1$. Let $g(n)$ be A072649, i.e., $n$ occurs $f(n)$ times. The sequence begins with $$1, 2, ...
Notamathematician's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
101 views

Recurrence for the number of steps required to get one ball in each box

Given $n$ balls, all of which are initially in the first of $n$ numbered boxes, $a(n)$ is the number of steps required to get one ball in each box when a step consists of moving to the next box every ...
Notamathematician's user avatar
49 votes
4 answers
4k views

Strange (or stupid) arithmetic derivation

Let us consider the following operation on positive integers: $$n=\prod_{i=1}^{k}p_i^{\alpha_i} \qquad f(n):= \prod_{i=1}^{k}\alpha_ip_i^{\alpha_i-1}$$ (Is it true that if we apply this operation to ...
Daniel Soltész's user avatar
33 votes
2 answers
856 views

A sequence potentially consisting of only integers

I will first ask the question which can be stated very simply. Afterwards I will explain some motivation and give references to related sequences. Consider the sequence defined by $$b_n = \frac{(...
John Machacek's user avatar
26 votes
1 answer
7k views

Elegant recursion for A301897

Let $a(n)$ be A301897, i.e., number of permutations $b$ of length $n$ that satisfy the Diaconis-Graham inequality $I_n(b) + EX_n(b) \leqslant D_n(b)$ with equality. Here $$a(n)=\frac{1}{n+1}\binom{2n}{...
Notamathematician's user avatar
20 votes
2 answers
1k views

A possibly surprising appearance of $\sqrt{2}.$

Define $A=(a_n)$ and $B=(b_n)$ as follows: $a_0=1$, $a_1=2$, $b_0=3$, $b_1=4$, and $$a_n=a_1b_{n-1}-a_0b_{n-2} + 2n$$ for $n \geq 2$, where $A$ and $B$ are increasing and every positive integer occurs ...
Clark Kimberling's user avatar
17 votes
2 answers
3k views

Some unpublished notes of Hofstadter

I'm looking for some unpublished notes called "Eta Lore," which are apparently related to a talk Douglas Hofstadter first gave at the Stanford Math Club in 1963. I know these notes exist because they'...
15 votes
0 answers
487 views

Word complexity of primes mod 4

For an infinite binary word $w$, the word complexity $f_w(n)$ is defined as the number of different subwords of length $n$. The asymptotic behavior of this function is an important parameter of the ...
Igor Pak's user avatar
  • 17.1k
14 votes
5 answers
977 views

Is the sequence $a_n=c a_{n-1} - a_{n-2}$ always composite for $n > 5$?

Numerical evidence suggests the following. For $c \in \mathbb{N}, c > 2$ define the sequence $a_n$ by $a_0=0,a_1=1, \; a_n=c a_{n-1} - a_{n-2}$ For $ 5 < n < 500, \; 2 < c < 100$ there ...
joro's user avatar
  • 25.4k
13 votes
1 answer
700 views

When is $\mathrm{gcd}(k,p^k-1)=1$ true?

Let $p$ be a prime. Is there a classification of the numbers $k \geq 1$ such that $\gcd(k,p^k-1)=1$? If not, can we at least produce an explicit infinite subset? What is known about these $k$? For the ...
Martin Brandenburg's user avatar
9 votes
2 answers
1k views

The p-adic valuation of a linear recurrence

Let $(u_n)_{n \geq 0}$ be an integer-valued linear recurrence of order $k \geq 1$. Precisely, $$u_n = a_1 u_{n-1} + \cdots + a_k u_{n - k} \quad \forall n \geq k ,$$ for some $a_1, \ldots, a_k \in \...
user avatar
7 votes
0 answers
945 views

Intuition behind salient numbers in number of h-cobordism classes of smooth homotopy n-spheres

The Wikipedia article on Exotic Sphere displays this sequence of numbers (see also OEIS A001676 and the Milnor link therein) for the order of the classses as $$1, \;1, \;1,\; 1,\; 1, \;1, \;28,\; 2,\; ...
Tom Copeland's user avatar
  • 10.5k
6 votes
2 answers
389 views

Conjectured Somos-like closed form of recurrences with polynomial coefficients

From Our short paper For polynomial $F$ with integer coefficients, define the recurrence $f(n)=F(n,f(n-1),f(n-2),...,f(n-d))$. We conjecture that $f(n)$ satisfy Somos like sequence $f(n)=\frac{G(f(n-1)...
joro's user avatar
  • 25.4k
6 votes
1 answer
268 views

Sequence that sums up to the number of permutations avoiding the pattern $1-23-4$

Let $a(n)$ be A113227, i.e., the number of permutations on $[n]\equiv \{1, \ldots, n\}$ avoiding the pattern $1-23-4$. The sequence begins with $$1, 1, 2, 6, 23, 105, 549, 3207, 20577, 143239, 1071704,...
Notamathematician's user avatar
6 votes
5 answers
546 views

Bounds for $a(n)=a(n-1)+a(\lfloor n/2 \rfloor)$

This is related to problem in graph theory. OEIS defines A033485 as $a(1)=1$ and $a(n)=a(n-1)+a(\lfloor n/2 \rfloor)$. Q1 what are upper bounds and asymptotics for $a(n)$, can we get $\exp(o(n))$? ...
joro's user avatar
  • 25.4k
5 votes
1 answer
359 views

Discrete logarithm and the sequence $a(n)=(g^n \bmod p)^{p-1} \bmod p^2$

Let $p$ be prime and $g,n$ integers. Define $a(n)=(g^n \bmod p)^{p-1} \bmod p^2$ By mod p we don't mean congruence, but the reduction modulo $p$ operator. $A \bmod ...
joro's user avatar
  • 25.4k
3 votes
1 answer
240 views

The sequence $a(n)=(2^n \bmod p)^{p-1} \bmod p^2$

Related to this question. Let $p$ be prime and $n$ positive integer. Define $a(n)=(2^n \bmod p)^{p-1} \bmod p^2$ Let $D(n)$ be the base $2$ discrete logarithm of $a(n)$, i.e. given $p,a(n)$ we have $2^...
joro's user avatar
  • 25.4k
3 votes
1 answer
140 views

Sequences that sum up to Dowling numbers

Let $a(n,k)$ be the sequence of $k$-Dowling numbers (for more information see A007405 and its CROSSREFS section) with e.g.f. $$\operatorname{exp}\left(x + \frac{\operatorname{exp}(kx) - 1}{k}\right)$$ ...
Notamathematician's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
344 views

Another integral that has a closed form involving finite series of $\zeta(2k+1)$'s. Could it be reflexive?

In the context of a series of questions here, here and here, about closed form expressions involving finite series of $\zeta(2k+1)$'s for certain integrals, I would like to raise another one: $$f(n):=...
Agno's user avatar
  • 4,169
2 votes
1 answer
214 views

Tower-of-squares sequence divides linear recurrent A001921 sequence?

Let $(a_n)$ be the A001921 sequence $$ a_0 = 0,\ a_1 = 7, \quad a_{n+2} = 14a_{n+1} - a_n + 6. $$ Let $(b_k)$ be the (almost)"tower-of-squares" sequence defined by $$ b_0=2, \quad b_{k+1}=2b_k^...
Ewan Delanoy's user avatar
2 votes
0 answers
137 views

Writing integers as sequences of products by 2 and integer divisions by 3

For any integer, we consider its decompositions into sequences of products by $2$ and integer division by $3$. For instance: $$ 100 = 2 \cdot 2 \cdot 2 \cdot 2 \cdot 2 \cdot 2 \cdot 2 \cdot 2 \cdot 2 \...
Matthieu Latapy's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
594 views

Polynomials, $3^x$ and the Collatz conjecture

$\DeclareMathOperator\Orb{Orb}\newcommand\abs[1]{\lvert#1\rvert}$The Collatz or the $3n+1$ conjecture is open. Are there non-trivial polynomials $f(x)\in\mathbb Z[x]$ and $g(x)\in\mathbb R[x]$ having ...
Turbo's user avatar
  • 13.9k
1 vote
1 answer
128 views

Bounds for the sequence $a(n,A)=n*a(\lfloor (1-A)n \rfloor,A)$

Related to this question and possibly the open problem of the exponential time hypotheses. Let $A$ be rational number, $0 < A < 1$. For positive integer $n$, define the sequence $a(1,A)=1$ and $(...
joro's user avatar
  • 25.4k
1 vote
2 answers
534 views

Can these sequences stay integer-valued as many times as we want and then fail?

Edit: Suppose that we choose some integer $d$ and some natural number $c=c_2$. Then if we plug those values into $$ c_{n+1}=\frac{c_n(c_n+n+d)}n $$ and observe the behavior of this recursively ...
user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
133 views

Elementary description to count of perfect squares - I

Is there an elementary description of $$N(a)=\Big|\Big\{x\in\{0,1,\dots,\Big\lfloor\frac a2\Big\rfloor-1,\Big\lfloor\frac a2\Big\rfloor\Big\}:\sqrt{x(a-x)}\in\Bbb Z\}\Big|$$ and though likely non-...
Turbo's user avatar
  • 13.9k