Critical Slow Growth in Averaged Meta-Fibonacci Recursions

We introduce a family of averaged meta-Fibonacci recursions $$Q_{\alpha,m}(n) = 1+ \left\lfloor \alpha \frac1m \sum_{j=1}^m Q_{\alpha,m}(n-Q_{\alpha,m}(n-j)) \right\rfloor ,$$ with initial conditions $$Q_{\alpha,m}(1)=\cdots=Q_{\alpha,m}(m)=1.$$ Unlike classical Hofstadter-type recursions, the averaging mechanism produces highly regular large-scale behavior. For the critical parameter value $\alpha=1$, we prove global well-definedness for all $m\ge1$, establish an exact triangular block structure, and show that the value $k$ occurs exactly $k$ consecutive times. As a consequence, $$Q_{1,m}(n)\sim \sqrt{2n}.$$ For the supercritical regime $\alpha>1$, we derive an asymptotic slope constraint showing that any positive linear growth rate, if it exists, must equal $$1-\alpha^{-1}.$$ Numerical experiments support the existence of a linear-growth phase and suggest a broader universality phenomenon for generalized averaging operators, including positive-power $L^p$-means. These results indicate that averaging induces a robust regularization mechanism for self-referential recursive systems, leading to stable slow-growth dynamics and nontrivial phase structure.