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23 votes
3 answers
2k views

Zeroes of the random Fibonacci sequence

Let $X_n$ be the "random Fibonacci sequence," defined as follows: $X_0 = 0, X_1 = 1$; $X_n = \pm X_{n-1} \pm X_{n-2}$, where the signs are chosen by independent 50/50 coinflips. It is known ...
JSE's user avatar
  • 19.2k
8 votes
4 answers
1k views

A Pascal's-triangle -like random process

I was exploring Pascal's triangle on a cylinder when I encountered this puzzle-like problem. It is surely elementary, but perhaps weekend-entertaining. Start with a permutation of $(1,2,3, \ldots, n)$...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
4 votes
0 answers
414 views

Explicit formula for tournament sequence

I am looking for an explicit formula for a sequence. The sequence is generated as follows: There is a tournament with $10$ teams. In the beginning, all teams have a 0-0 win-loss record. The teams are ...
Jackson's user avatar
  • 41
3 votes
1 answer
435 views

What is the connection between these three methods of generating this sequence?

I was recently looking at this problem: “There are a number of balls in a jar, some of them red, some of them white. The odds of picking two at random and both balls being red is 1/2. How many of the ...
Conor Pillay's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
173 views

How many flips of a fair coin are needed to get at least one run of at least $k$ consecutive heads with probability $\ge1/2$?

The following question was asked today: How many flips $n$ of a fair coin are needed to get at least one run of at least $k$ consecutive heads with probability $P_{k,n}\ge1/2$? The question was ...
Iosif Pinelis's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
301 views

Number of subsets that sum to $0$

Suppose you choose $n$ distinct random numbers from a contiguous subset of cardinality $f({\beta, n})$ with at least $f({\alpha_+, n})$ positive and at least $f({\alpha_-, n})$ negative values from a ...
user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
219 views

A square-squareroot integer race sequence involving primes

I wonder what is the expected behavior of this process? Let $f^2_{\mathrm{next}}(n) =$ the next prime after $n^2$. $g_{\mathrm{sqrt}}(n) = \lfloor \sqrt{n} \rfloor$. Now iterate as follows, ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
144 views

Formally confirm a formula for a certain three-dimensional constrained integral over the unit cube

The result of the three-dimensional constrained integration (for the Hilbert-Schmidt two-qubit absolute separability probability) over the unit cube $[0,1]^3$ \begin{equation} \label{one} \int_0^1 \...
Paul B. Slater's user avatar
0 votes
0 answers
60 views

Reference request: Counting integer sequences in homogeneous linear recurrences

Are there references in the literature that deal with the probability of finding an integer sequence in a linear homogeneous recurrence with constant coefficients $ \in \mathbb{Z}$? (or provides a way ...
rgvalenciaalbornoz's user avatar
0 votes
0 answers
54 views

A distribution of maximum of sums if add to the minimal

Consider a vector of $n$ integer variables with initial values of 0. Each step we take random $w_i\thicksim NB(q, l)$ (independent randon values with the same negative binomial distribution) and add ...
Ihnatus's user avatar
  • 11