English

On the moments of the Ulam-Kac adder

Probability 2023-04-03 v2

Abstract

Let {U(n)}n0\{U(n)\}_{n \geq 0} be a sequence of independent random variables such that U(n)U(n) is distributed uniformly on {0,1,2n}\{0, 1, 2 \dots n\}. The Ulam-Kac adder is the history-dependent random sequence defined by Xn+1=Xn+XU(n)X_{n + 1} = X_{n} + X_{U(n)} with the initial condition X0=1X_0 = 1. We show that for each m1m \geq 1, it holds that logE[Xnm]/n\log E[X_n^m]/\sqrt{n} approaches a constant cmc_m as nn \to \infty. Loose bounds are provided for the constants cmc_m.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2303.03606,
  title  = {On the moments of the Ulam-Kac adder},
  author = {Gage Bonner},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2303.03606},
  year   = {2023}
}

Comments

Fixed typos, updated references/end matter. Removed citation of a conjecture which has actually been decided (in the negative.)