English

Non-standard Zeckendorf decompositions; or, Tribonacci within Fibonacci

Number Theory 2026-04-20 v1 Combinatorics

Abstract

We study B(n;k)B(n;k), the number of ways of writing nn as a sum or difference of the first kk Fibonacci numbers. We show that B(0;k)B(0;k) satisfies the Tribonacci-like recurrence B(0;k+1)=B(0;k)+B(0;k1)+B(0;k2)B(0;k+1)=B(0;k)+B(0;k-1)+B(0;k-2) and that B(n;k)B(n;k) satisfies a modified version of this recurrence.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2604.15446,
  title  = {Non-standard Zeckendorf decompositions; or, Tribonacci within Fibonacci},
  author = {Katie Anders and Madeline L. Dawsey and Joseph Vandehey},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2604.15446},
  year   = {2026}
}