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A short proof of Mathar's 2021 recurrence conjecture for the Lehmer-Comtet diagonal A045406

Combinatorics 2026-05-14 v1

Abstract

For OEIS sequence A045406, the column-2 diagonal of the Lehmer-Comtet triangle A008296, R. J. Mathar contributed in September 2021 the conjectured order-2 P-recursive recurrence a(n)+(2n7)a(n1)+(n4)2a(n2)  =  0,n5. a(n) + (2n-7)\,a(n-1) + (n-4)^{2}\,a(n-2) \;=\; 0,\qquad n \ge 5. We give a short proof. Detlefs's harmonic-number closed form a(n)=(1)n(2Hn33)(n3)!a(n) = (-1)^n (2 H_{n-3} - 3)(n-3)! for n3n \ge 3 collapses the left-hand side, after factoring out (1)n(n5)!(n4)(-1)^n (n-5)! (n-4), to a polynomial identity in nn with coefficient Hn4H_{n-4}. The Hn4H_{n-4}-coefficient simplifies to (n3)(2n7)+(n4)=0(n-3) - (2n-7) + (n-4) = 0 (using Hn3=Hn4+1/(n3)H_{n-3} = H_{n-4} + 1/(n-3) and Hn5=Hn41/(n4)H_{n-5} = H_{n-4} - 1/(n-4)); the constant remainder is 00 for the same reason. The supplementary archive contains a SymPy script verifying both pieces symbolically, the e.g.f.\ expansion against the harmonic closed form, and Mathar's recurrence numerically for n=5,,5000n = 5, \ldots, 5000.

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Cite

@article{arxiv.2605.12839,
  title  = {A short proof of Mathar's 2021 recurrence conjecture for the Lehmer-Comtet diagonal A045406},
  author = {Tong Niu},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2605.12839},
  year   = {2026}
}

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8 pages