Non-linear Recurrences that Quite Unexpectedly Generate Rational Numbers
Abstract
Non-linear recurrences which generate integers in a surprising way have been studied by many people. Typically people study recurrences that are linear in the highest order term. In this paper I consider what happens when the recurrence is not linear in the highest order term. In this case we no longer produce a unique sequence, but we sometimes have surprising results. If the highest order term is raised to the power we expect answers to have roots, but for some specific recurrences it happens that we generate rational numbers ad infinitum. I will give a general example in the case of a first order recurrence with , and a more specific example that is order 3 with which comes from a generalized Somos recurrence.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.0909.0469,
title = {Non-linear Recurrences that Quite Unexpectedly Generate Rational Numbers},
author = {Emilie Hogan},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0909.0469},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
14 pages, accompanying Maple code can be found at http://math.rutgers.edu/~eahogan/maple/maple.html